Response to Tipalet Cigarette Ad
Wednesday, September 24, 11:07 PM
A man and a woman are gazing into each other’s eyes. The lighting is very dramatic on the people’s faces. An emphasis on the man's face, he seems mysterious and suave, while the woman is projected as innocent and submissive. Light shining on her face captures the woman’s beauty. In broad white text, “Blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere.”; this is a cigarette ad by Tipalet, introducing their new four “delicious” flavors. The Tipalet ad originates from the 1970s, promoting cigarette use. It incorporates various forms of propaganda.
The Tipalet ad employs the technique “lesser of two evil” where it falsely states that using cigarette without inhaling smoke is healthier than just plain smoking. It also states that second hand smoke is fine since the man is blowing fumes into the woman’s face. In actuality, smoking is very dangerous to the health, to both the smoker’s and the second hand victim’s. The ad focuses on the positives, suggesting that the four new flavors of cigarettes make smoking even more enjoyable. It attracts old and new smokers with its clever campaign.
It lures in potential smokers with a promise that “if you use our product, you will be like the mysterious and attractive man in the ad”. The woman stares solemnly into the man’s eyes. The ad generalizes that women are attracted to the smell of smoke, claiming that men who smoke can get any woman. There is no valid source of information from which this conclusion deprives from--yet another form of propaganda, an illogical conclusion.
The ad calls out to the “Smokers of America” to make their next cigarette a Tipalet, guaranteeing more satisfaction with their product. Tipalet provides an alternative to fume inducing -which bother the consumer- cigarettes; what they forgot about is how the fumes from their new product could still affect other people. The bandwagon technique appeals to the subject to follow the crowd to join in; essentially because everyone else seems to be doing it.
The mood projects a seductive scene; the smoke acting as mist. The yellow ambiance background let the two dark picture stand out, enclosing them in a frame of privacy. In a gown of white, the angelic woman is entranced by the man’s unfazed look-his bait, a Tipalet cigarette. “Second hand smoke is okay; in fact women are attracted to it” is the message being screamed out by the mood in this advertisement.
To say that smoking is more satisfactory without inhaling is unsupported by any facts. Simplification often reduces a complex choice to simple clear cut answer. In this case, it seems to be choosing Tipalet over other brands. This simplification technique appeals to the uneducated mass. Smokers are reeled in by the cost effective price of twenty-five cents per pack and advertisement claiming that smoking for cool people; those who want to be cool should follow this example. It dupes people into buying the cigarettes.
Burgundy, cherry, grape, or lustrous blueberry, it’s your choice of cigarette. Propaganda is present in our everyday life, even though we may not notice it. We are being bombarded with images trying to sell us products or new solutions to problems that do not exist. The tone, colors, people in the advertisement, and slogans all attribute to our acceptance of smoking in society. Since the 1970s, the side-effects of smoking are widely known yet we still have cigarette ads and constant propaganda on TV and in the media. Inspired by a friend's English assignment, and this webpage: Illogical Mind-"Truth" In Advertising
