We talked about advertisements last week in discussion and how they often try and manipulate consumers into buying products. They do this by "the law of contiguity" by attaching desirable emotions and wants to the product. Here are a few cigaret ads from the mid 20th century that attached different meanings with their product. 
What do you think about these images?
I think it is really interesting how the first ad is trying to attach "being physically fit" with smoking cigarets. I remember when I was young and my grandma was quitting smoking and I didn't understand why she would start in the first place because It was such a bad thing. Now I understand that before the research came out supporting the fact that cigarets are positively correlated with lung cancer and lung disease, smoking was seen as healthy. Smoking was looked at as a smart and healthy choice, because it was a good alternative to food and helped people lose weight.
Often beer commercials will associate drinking beer with women being attracted to the men drinking the beer. This is very similar to the second advertisement I attached. Have you ever found yourself "falling for" advertisements like these? If so what was the product and how did it affect you?
Here is website with more controversy photos of cigaret advertisements. http://www.medicalassistantprograms.net/blog/20-outrageous-vintage-cigarette-ads
Advertisements that manipulate you into buying a product (groupC)
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Wow, these ads are tempting to follow if I was living back then and didnt know about the harms of cigarets.
I think that everyone has fallen for advertising sometime in their life. Kids are especially susceptible to advertisements and especially commercials. I remember being a kid and wanting the latest Barbie doll or the Wonderball, I think that most of us remember the Wonderball at some point in our childhood. Whenever I would go to the grocery store with my mom I would always ask if I could get one, she almost always said no saying that we had enough candy at home. The point of advertisements is to make people want the product, they usually succeed in doing that, and then it is up to the consumer, or in my case, my mom to decide if getting the product is really the best thing. If my mom had given in every time I wanted something sugary I probably would not be as healthy as I am today. These ads had a negative influence on me at the time but in the long run they inadvertently had a positive effect, with the help of my mom too.
I think we also need to think about the fact that advertisements were counted on as true back then as well because people didn't have such easy access to the research. Plus, a lot of them thought that the government wouldn't allow these ads to run if they weren't true.
"Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere" actually made my jaw drop. I wonder what other marketing campaigns have changed this drastically within the space of a century!!
I liked your reference to "the law of contiguity" and how ads show their products in a way that incorporates desirable emotions to make people buy their product. This way when people see the product in a store they will be more likely to remember those desirable emotions and buy the product.
I really like the second advertisement. It totally makes smoking look attractive because they show an attractive woman who will "follow you anywhere." It portrays some sort of sexuality, which does help sell products.
I showed the ad to my friend, who doesn't smoke, and he said, "Damn, I would definitely smoke if she followed me anywhere. She's hot." Haha, clearly the ad works.
I have also noticed that the majority of cigarette advertisements makes smoking look super cool...as if smoking is just totally badass and if you, too, desired to be badass, you would smoke also. It's crazy how ads and the media works.
i think all of us fall pray to advertisment once in a while. Especiallly now that the industry has grown so much and they are even smarter as to how to get you to buy their product. These 2 examples that you used are really good because they try to get you to buy the product with making a relation to how you are going to feel, how you are going to "be more attractive" or "be more fit". Like you said, before smoking was seen as a good thing, it gave you class and well it was the popular thing to do. Im thinking...social influence, comformity, pear pressure?
It is crazy how much the media can get into our psyches and impact the way we feel about certain products or ideas! It was a good choice to use smoking advertisements as an example because of their evolution throughout time! Back when these advertisements were current, many many more people smoked than today when many cigarette advertisements have been banned. I am curious as to what the number of people who smoked would be if these advertisements were still allowed, but we had the medical information we have today. Would the advertisements cause more people smoke? Or would our medical knowledge completely eclipse the advertisements?