This advertisement depicts a person smoking, but the shadow is that of a gun. Under it is the caption "Smoking Kills. About 106,000 people in the UK die each year due to smoking". Far from the days where guns and smoking were depicted as cool in James Bond movies, this is an anti-smoking advertisement.
Not everyone considers cigarettes to be as dangerous as other do. (if they did, there would be no need for anti-smoking ads.) The ad applies classical conditioning to make up for this by comparing the cigarette to a gun. Like an alcoholic beverage paired with a celebrity, the pairing of the gun and the cigarette are designed to manipulate your feelings. It is supposed to make you assimilate the same emotions that you feel about guns as you do with smoking. The gun is the unconditioned stimulus (many people are afraid of guns), while fear is the unconditioned response. The cigarette is the conditioned stimulus. Fear of smoking is the conditioned response. The effectiveness of this advertisement depends on the strength of someone's particular emotions towards guns. For example, eccentric NRA supporter and rock star Ted Nugent would most likely not develop a fear of smoking when seeing a cigarette with the shadow of a beloved gun. However, anyone who is afraid of or opposed to guns would probably result in the attended feelings towards smoking. However, most people have negative feelings towards guns so the ad should be successful.
