An Advertisement Likely to Work

Very eye-catching ads you posted. However strong an anti-smoking advertisement is, I don't think that it will be the driving force that leads a smoker to decide to quit. In my opinion, I feel that in order for someone to truly quit, they must be hit with the death or diagnosing of cancer of a loved one. Personally, the death of my grandfather due to lung cancer was what drove my aunt and uncle to quit. Nevertheless, I'm sure many many people have decided to quit due to other events or driving forces.

Your ending question "is it powerful enough to overpower a nicotine addiction?" is interesting. Although these ads clearly have a fear base it's hard to be sure if they would be enough to scare someone who is already addicted. I think ads like these are more to scare non-smokers to STAY non-smokers. Although I doubt they really work for people who already smoke it seems like a good idea to make preventative ads like this.

I agree with you that those unconditional stimulus such as the fear of death and the fear of killing one's children do help in persudaing smoking people to quit. However, in my opinion, I think the second advertisement is better than the first one because of the stronger emotion. Of course the people who are smoking know the harm to their bodies and the people around them. Therefore the first picture cannot make most of them get rid of ciggarettes. But as for the second one, the little girl with ligher can make a different effect. Every parent in this world loves his/her child. Parents always hope their children live healthily and happily. So it is more possible for the people who smoke to quit for thier children.

This advertisement just use the visual stimulus to make the customer been attracted by the advertisement. Sometimes, the words or many ways to show what are the advantages of the product is not as useful as the shocking picture and shocking objects, like guns or smoke, these always make people imagine about death and dark and fear. Those uncomfortable feeling will much more deeply and truly feel about the consequence which smoking will bring. This is a good way to make people notice and remember and deeply understand.

These ads are some of the most direct ones of I have seen that refer to smoking. I agree with the commenter who said that the second picture would definitely cause a person to evaluate their choices. As stated, the person already realizes that they are causing harm to themselves. Often faced with the opportunity of hurting people close to them, people will attempt to alter their habits. The key word her is “attempt”. Although I think the second ad would increase the chances that someone would try to quit, the chance of fully quitting still remains low. I had heard that ads similar to these could be present in smaller forms on smoking product boxes in the future. This obviously upsets tobacco companies, but it is yet to be seen how this situation will play out.

I think these advertisments are more focused for the people who are not currently addicted. Going off your last line "Is [the advertisment] powerful enough to overpower a nicotine addiction?" is a good question to ask, but my answer is that it is not. I think that the people smoking know the harmful side effects and that it does not only affect them but others. I talked to my dad who has gotten over a nicotine addiction, and he tried to explain to me the trouble he had. He is an smart man and he knew how I felt, but that didn't over come the addiction. It was will power and changing his mind set.

I think the advertisements that you posted are very powerful and gripping. It is interesting how both associate smoking with something that people are commonly afraid of. The message does have the ability to strike people's emotions, however, like you said it might not be enough to get someone to overcome their addiction to nicotine.

Awesome job on finding those advertisements! You do a good job of explaining the ads as well

These advertisements were a great way to get across the point of not to smoke. I understand how someone may never want to after realizing it will kill you. However, do all advertisements make such a good point for their product or reasoning? How could some make it better?

I find that I'm divided on the effectiveness of such an advertisement as with cigarette ads. I find myself really moved by the thought of not being able to be there for my kid because I died from lung cancer that I could have prevented. However, I've noticed that it doesn't seem to register in most of the cigarette smokers that I know, which makes me wonder if the ads really have an effect on them or if the addiction is just powerful enough to overpower the higher order conditioning in this example.