Secondhand Smoke
Smoking is one of the deadliest habits around
causing more than four-hundred and eighty thousand deaths each year in the
United States. Cigarettes cause a great deal of health issues such as cancer,
heart circulation problems, and higher risk of stroke to name a few.
Anti-smoking ads have always been known to pack a powerful punch when it comes
to causing negative emotions towards smoking. This ad is relevant because
fifteen percent of U.S. adults smoke cigarettes, which is equivalent to
thirty-six and a half million smoking cigarettes in America alone. The nature
of the image chosen is to shock and target feelings of negative emotions out of
the audience towards smokers. The innocence of the child and her purity in the
image is pointed out and enhanced for the effect that the cigarettes have on a
bystander.
The purpose is to inform the audience that
not only the person who smokes is affecting their health but also the people
around them. Secondhand smoking in relation to children have been linked to
causing respiratory infections, ear infections, and a greater risk for sudden
infant death syndrome. No sane parent wants to put their child’s life at risk,
this anti-smoking campaign is trying to inform the people of the U.S. in a way
that will impact the viewer in the most powerful way possible.
This image appeals mostly to ethos in an
impactful way leaving the audience to ponder their choices on their daily
activities. Ethos, being emotion, is the
emotion that the viewer gets when the picture refers to the little girl as
“going to heaven early” because of the second-hand smoke. Clearly the person is
bound to feel some type of sadness at the thought of a child passing on to
heaven. With this method, the image has a powerful take away on quitting
smoking for the benefit of not only to the person who is smoking but to the
loved ones surrounding while they a partaking in the activity.
The other two categories of effective writing
pathos and logos are present in the image as well. Appealing to pathos, the
image comes from a credible source The Child Health Foundation, a foundation
specifically targeted for children and how to prevent disease and death amongst
children in the U.S. and worldwide. The foundations research and projects have
saved millions of lives by all of the data they have collected and the
progression of medical advances and treatments they have created as well. Lastly
appealing to logos, logically quitting smoking is the healthiest move for
people that want to prolong their life or their children’s. Cigarettes contain
over seven thousand chemicals, with an estimate of seventy of those chemicals
causing cancer and hundreds that are toxic. Also, the hundreds of health issues
and diseases. Logically speaking, cigarettes shorten your lifespan by the
abundance of health issues that lead to imminent death.
The image has a precise focal point which
gives the viewer a powerful message, the young girl in the photo with a halo of
smoke around her head. She has an expressionless face in the picture which also
has an emotional effect, she isn’t showing signs of any feeling at all. The innocence
of the child also shines through in this image, with her watching the parent
partake in smoking and just standing there, she knows no better than for that
to be normal and that it has no effect, when in reality its damaging their body
immensely.
The use of colors in the image are affective
in bringing out the girl as well. Dark colors in the background are used to
bring out the bright colors of the girl’s clothing. Also, the flowers on the
child’s shirt adds to her level of innocence and her “cute” like nature. These
factors make her stand even more and makes the image more powerful. The image
has the writing “Children of parents who smoke, get to heaven earlier” which is
the only text in the image. One sentence is used and the message is clear and
effective and causes intense emotions, which is an advertisers dream.
The halo made with the ring of cigarette
smoke with that being said, with manipulating by photo-shop and editing, sends
a powerful message. The editing of the photo for the halo to be placed on the
girl’s head makes the sentence and purpose of the image more impactful. The
child then takes the image of an angel, and of course to a religious person
they are located in heaven and are not alive. Once again, a dead child is not a
pleasant thought for the average person, especially a parent with children of
their own. Another compelling aspect of the photo made possible with
manipulation is that the little girl is looking at a beam of light. Which
again, from a religious perspective can show the process of ascending to
heaven.” Making the message of ascending to heaven even more clear by the child
looking into the light with a halo around her head.
Smoking and its consequences are known to
kill thousands of people a year but the true totality of all of the effects and
the people surrounding the smokers kill thousands as well. Never smoking a
cigarette and to still have them kill a person who is merely is a danger to
children all around the world. Although the health issues as a bystander does not
tax the same toll as the person who is actually smoking, it is not fair to the
people that chose not to smoke to still be affected by cigarettes. Restaurants
everywhere have banned smoking areas but public areas such as on the streets or
casinos people may smoke as they please and people around are physically
harming innocent people and children. This image is showing that in the most
impactful way possible by enlightening parents the effects it has on their
children.
Works Cited
Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention “Secondhand Smoke (SHS) Facts”
Center for Disease
Control and Prevention “Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking”
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/index.htm
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