TOW 20 - Anti-Smoking Advertisement (CONAC)

Ever since elementary school, the perversion of smoking has been emphasized. Through tragic retellings by loved ones, or with the school nurse’s plastic model of a smoker’s lung immersed in sludge, children are taught that smoking is neither pretty nor cool. Why does no one teach the adults that? In its 2013 advertisement promoting awareness towards smoking, the Chilean Corporation Against Cancer (CONAC) uses children’s innocence to take a stand against adult's recklessness. Through commanding imagery and succinct sentence structure, CONAC's advertisement forces smoking adults to realize the universal effect of their actions. 

The suffocating bag of smoke, the child’s empty wail, the nothingness of the background – everything about this image demands attention. The striking anguish on the child’s face causes even a cursory glance to induce shock and heartache. After further investigation, what seems to be a plastic bag killing the child, a common method of suicide, is actually a shroud of smoke engulfing his head. The suicide by suffocation contrasts the portrayed innocence of this child to show that this boy did not have a choice. The image emphasizes the effect of smoking, specifically secondhand smoke, is more pervasive and impacts not just the smoker.

There are two simple sentences in this advertisement, but it is guaranteed that they will stick with you: “Smoking isn’t just suicide. It’s murder.” CONAC could have gone on about the harmful side affects of smoking, but they didn’t.  They didn't use the more formal “it is,” but rather they chose a contraction. The structure adds a dramatic intensity that creates mixed emotions in the reader, such as distress, remorse, angst and shame.  By keeping the message short and not necessarily sweet, CONAC gets its message across and packs a punch. The impact of smoking slowly sinks into the reader – the few words in the sentences, like suicide and murder, have a powerful ripple effect of resonation.

Smoking has always been off limits like the cookie jar teetering on the top shelf that’s just too high to reach. CONAC’s advertisement transforms that cookie into the glob of artificial sugar and bulging fat that it is.