Unpaid Tobacco Spokesperson & You Didn't Even Realize

With Tobacco companies racking up the dollars, why should they waste any of their hard earned profit on advertising? With the amount of non-traditional, free advertising done by celebrities and people around the world, it's at no surprise if big tobacco companies felt this way. Through this new "Unpaid Tobacco Spokesperson" ad by Truth, they are showing that there are negative effects of the tobacco use by celebrities because they are in the public eye and tobacco companies are banking on their actions.

Theories

Verbal & Visual - concrete and realistic - Smoking is a trend around the world so using verbal and visual cues to portray a concrete and realistic portrayal of tobacco use is what the ad used to reach it's target audience. 

Means to End - This ad contains a message : Non-smoking/quit smoking -- healthy -- self-respect/wisdom/comfortable life/happiness. This ad is trying to get viewers to understand that not only are people unconsciously supporting tobacco use and promoting it but also coming off as smoking is okay, which it's not: smoking is unhealthy and it needs to end.

Leverage Point

Celebrities Smoking Cigarettes

Tag Line

"Unpaid Tobacco Spokesperson"

Appeal Strategy

1. Musical Appeal - The fast-paced music brings in the viewer but particularly gains the attention of a younger generation who likes this type of music. Because it sounds like music they would listen to on their own, it is easily stuck in their minds. 

2.  Rational Appeal - With no spoken words, this advertisement forces the viewer to be active in reading and watching the entire ad to get the message. There aren't any puns, hyperboles, or dialog, just the straight facts about celebrities unknowingly being unpaid spokespeople for big tobacco companies.

Messaging Strategy
Affective and emotional messaging strategies are both apparent in this ad. The ad gives off a sense of influence that try's to connect the viewer to their campaign by making it relevant and allowing viewers to get involved. It is also emotional because it connects something our society views as important and influential, celebrities, with an issue that many people see eye-to-eye on, smoking.

Executional Framework

The executional framework of this ad is informational. For the most part, the only thing these Truth ad's do is tell the facts straight up, as is. The facts about tobacco use and it's effects on the body, the environment, and others are so shocking that they usually don't need to do anything more than tell the truth about tobacco.

Main Message

When someone wears or uses products, they are essentially a walking billboard for whatever company/brand/product. The main message of this particular ad is aimed towards celebrities and how their actions influence our society.

Effective?

Yes, it's straightforward and tells people what's going on and that it should end.

1. Visual Consistency - The repeated tagline, music, and views of celebrities smoking.

2. Repeated Tagline - the tagline is the same throughout the majority of the ad.

3. Simplicity - it's simple and straightforward. There are no distractions or changes in scenes until the end where the facts and call to action are shown. 

Target Audience

It's like they say, "you can't teach an old dog new tricks". The anti-smoking campaigns obviously want to reach a wide target audience, because smoking isn't necessarily specific to one generation, one race, one sex but the probably is tobacco is addicting and if you've been smoking it for 20 years, you're less likely to quit than someone who has dabbled in it occasionally. This particular ad is targeting the younger generations, the people that would recognize Rihanna, Orlando Bloom, and Chris Brown. This generation is the most easily influenced, especially by social media. By targeting this specific generation, the anti-smoking campaigns are able to potentially stop a person in this target audience from smoking or at least make them think twice about what they are doing and why they are doing it.