Anti-Smoking Campaign / Smoking Isn't Just Suicide

Client: Australian Government
Agent: Impact Advertising

Brief:
Design an anti-smoking campaign of print ads targeting the dangers of passive smoking, to be viewed in all states and territories of Australia.

Introduction to Campaign:
Good morning. I’m Renee, this is Sarah and James, we’re from Impact Advertising. We were approached by the Department of Health and Ageing to pitch an anti-smoking campaign of print ads targeting the dangers of passive smoking. Today, our campaign focuses on the detrimental effects of passive smoking especially on children as you’ll see when each of us presents and discusses each individual advertisement. Our campaign ‘If you smoke, they smoke too’, looks at building the belief that smokers are accountable for the effects of passive smoking, especially in children.

Smoking Isn’t Just Suicide
The first advertisement proposal today, titled ‘Smoking Isn’t Just Suicide’, was designed to specifically provoke a reaction. When attacking this project we asked ourselves who was affected by passive smoking. We needed an element of truth so that the advertisement was relatable. So, we thought about who has to spend the most time around smokers. Who sits on the lap of their mother while she has a smoke? Or follows their dad outside to the porch two, three, four, five times a day so he can smoke? These are the kids who have grown up living with and spending time with a mother, father, sibling, aunt, uncle, grandma or grandpa who smokes. In the development of our campaign we targeted the negative physical and emotional effects of second hand smoke on children. The effectiveness and success our campaign will offer over others can be put down to the complete understanding we have of the emotional capacity of the target market.  Incorporating this understanding with our knowledge of advertising techniques and conventions we have developed an advertisement that will be successful in reducing the percentage of children affected by passive smoking. The advertisement on the left side of the flyer you have in front of you and behind me on the board is the first advertisement to be developed in response to the brief. In the design phase it was important to consider the current social and cultural context this advertisement will be seen in. 

 [Show advertisement][Hand out flyers]

As the Australian society has developed and been influenced by globalisation, technology and the unrelenting media, the characteristics of a successful advertisement have changed. In order to sustain the success of anti-smoking ads in Australia changes need to be made. In past campaigns, a typical anti-smoking advertisement sought to educate. You, as a government department, needed to provide the Australian public with the facts; they needed to know the dangers of smoking. However, the Australian audience is not passive and I can guarantee that they’ve noticed the pictures on cigarette packets. They know that smoking causes cancer in the lung, lip, tongue, mouth and throat; they know it causes heart disease, strokes, asthma and blindness. What they can’t know, is the effect on everyone around them. This print advertisement, while encompassing the classic interpretation of the detrimental effects of smoking, exploits the use of shock advertising. Evident in many of the advertising codes and conventions, this advertisement is specifically designed to upset and offend viewers in order to provoke a reaction. This approach is essential in the current social and cultural context of the Australian society. We, as a society, have become desensitised by the repeated exposure to negative and adverse stimuli provided by numerous forms of media. The public’s diminished emotional responsiveness to violence, death and destruction, the result of this repeated exposure, signifies that the advertisement industry, to successfully draw the attention of an audience, needs to ‘up the ante’. As you can see, in order to counteract the inert reaction that is received in response to a slightly distressing picture, the “Smoking Isn’t Just Suicide” advertisement takes advantage of the emotions of the audience. By depicting a child as young as two or three, as in the ad, we are playing on the belief that strong family values are present in the Australian and Western context. As our current belief system strongly disagrees with harming a child this advertisement will provide an adequate amount of shock to impact the modern thinking of the audience.

The symbolism and overall appeal of the advertisement, seen primarily through the main image, is imperative to the success of this advertisement. The body language and colour work together to create an overall sense of despair and distress. This in turn will evoke the need to get rid of this misery. The image depicts a child being suffocated by a bag of smoke. The body language of the child mirrors the representation of suffocation. The use of a child in the advertisement, usually a symbol of hope and life, further emphasises the depraved nature of passive smoking. As well of the symbolic use of a child, the cultural meaning that is gained through the colours used in the advertisement promotes the distressing image we are trying to portray. The realistic qualities of the boy, in terms of hair, cheeks and shirt colour, stress the reality of the issue. Also, the colour black is often used to represent death, darkness and destruction. The use of black around the outside conveys the connotations attached to the colour. The representations and connotations the symbols and colours bring to this advertisement successfully convey the message we are portraying.

Furthermore, the visual codes, both obvious and subtle, are used to position the audience to accept the responsibility that goes hand-in-hand with smoking, using these devices to foreground the effect on children exposed to the smoke. The framing, shot size and camera angles have been carefully considered to ensure the advertisement will have the biggest impact on the audience possible.  The placement and size of the child compliments the knowledge of eye-line and points of focus. While eye-line is one of the most important conventions of the visual codes, placing the picture above the copy and making it large in comparison catches the initial attention of the audience. The distress in the child’s face maintains their attention and then the copy is the last aspect the audience will see. We know this through studies suggesting that the eye-line of an audience glancing at an advertisement will follow a ‘Z’ pattern, beginning at the top left corner of the page, moving right and then down. Additionally, having both a close up and an eye-level shot when framing the main image portrays a sense of familiarity. Using these shots will make the audience feel a connection and relationship with the boys. Developing this relationship between the subject and the audience will further impact the emotional and moral need to protect or help the boys.  If a child was actually standing in your house, in the park, at the supermarket screaming and crying you would want to help. Wouldn’t you?

Now, ladies and gentlemen, if you would direct your attention to the copy located at the base of the advertisement. It reads, ‘Smoking isn’t just suicide. It’s murder.’ Further reinforcing the connection between this advertisement and smoking, the copy uses vocabulary that is related to the current target market’s vernacular. It sounds dark and awful however, recently in particular, the prevalence of suicide and hearing about suicide in the media has grown dramatically. Using this word in a short, simple statement will ‘hit home’ in the current social context. Moreover, using this word in a conjunction with the word ‘murder’ is crucial in delivering our message in a manner which the audience will accept. We need to change the stigma that smoking is only suicide to the belief that it is both suicide and murder. The audience will take these two words from the advertisement and remember them as interchangeable, representing the act of smoking as both suicide and murder. We strongly believe, through the use of this particular copy, it will be possible to set off a social reaction.

This advertisement will stay in the minds of Australians. They will think about who is around when they are smoking. Our knowledge, as an advertisement agency, of successful techniques as well as our understanding of the Australian society has shaped the redesign of anti-smoking advertisements. We have modified successful advertisements of past and considered advertising techniques including framing, composition, shot size, symbols and appeals to create this ad. The use of these techniques will guarantee the success and influence this ad will provide. The second advertisement of our campaign will be presented by Sarah. Please consider that this ad will sell the idea that if you smoke, they will too. Thank-you.