How do they sell us this stuff?
Everybody knows cigarettes are bad for you. Everybody knows alcohol is bad for you. So why would someone buy these things? A number of reasons could be given: peer pressure, my parents did it, my parents didn’t want me to do it, it felt pretty cool, and I just felt like it. Each of these excuses has more than likely been given by someone who has done the previously stated acts. Generally a person will not say that an advertisement made him or her do something. But the truth is that advertisements can have a large impact on how a person acts.
Cigarettes have almost no ads nowadays; at least I have not seen any. All of the ads about cigarettes are the truth or above the influence ads that tell me smoking kills, obviously. Today it is common knowledge that a cigarette causes lung cancer as well as second hand smoke. The companies that produced cigarettes before the anti-smoking campaign must have known the effects of their product, but continued to sell them anyway. One company, Winston, went so far as to use a popular cartoon show, the Flintstones, to sell their cigarettes-> http://youtube.com/watch?v=VtEciS9CZ2E. As silly as that may seem, that show was, and may still be, watched by children. Clearly a child would be influenced to want a cigarette after the Flintstones had one.
Another heavy influence still prevalent in today’s culture are alcohol commercials. Beer commercials, in particular, are most memorable. Most of the time these commercials never even describe the product it’s selling, it just shows something witty or sexual and all of a sudden, the viewer wants an ice cold brew. the Bud Light Super Bowl XL “Magic Fridge” ad is a perfect example of how the commercial just uses humor, not even describing its product, but the next day, everyone is talking about Bud Light and how funny that ad was->http://youtube.com/watch?v=llPZL9eLc3Y
Another way commercials can get you to buy things that are clearly unhealthy is by using pleasure and the senses. The Corona beer ads use this very effectively-> http://youtube.com/watch?v=fLl9qDHQPyk&mode=related&search=corona%20beer%20commercial. By using a calm beach and a serene atmosphere (I know I wanted to be there), the ad puts you in a place of calm and peace and the beer fits that scene very well.
Ads like these show that advertising for unhealthy products can make a person want the product, even if he or she is unaware of it.
-Stefan Francesconi
Nice job, Stefan. The Flintstones have been used to sell cigarettes and children’s vitamins. Oh the irony.
I agree with you on how beer commercials sometimes have nothing to do with beer. You also raise a good point with how commercials use pleasure and the senses. But i do see a lot of cigarette ads in magazines though.
Tone Shamon