Month: September 2019

To open my speech, I intend to exhibit the karios of my artifact by stating statistics on teen use of cigarettes in the 1950’s compared to the teen use of juul and other vaping devices today. Hopefully, this will draw the audience in as teen vaping is a very hot issue right now as companies attempt to save face as they face more and more regulations. This moves me to my second point, I plan on speaking to what inspired or caused this poster to be put into production. That cause being new scientific research coming out that cigarettes were actually harmful to the user. This artifact is civic because it serves to change public opinion/market a product and even a lifestyle through multiple persuasion techniques. For example, the advertisement includes a celebrity endorsement of actor John Gilbert, an A list actor in his time. The poster also attempts to warp public perception of their brand in particular  by using the tagline “Its Toasted”, this makes the viewing think of other cigarettes as poisonous, but Lucky as natural and toasted. The poster further distances itself from other cigarette companies and emphasizes their products “healthiness” by stating that the toasting negates the irritation and coughing that other companies’ cigarettes cause. The message of this artifact is marketed directly to the consumer, and essentially, the message is rejecting the recent medical findings of the time and claiming that although cigarettes could possibly be bad, our cigarettes are the healthiest possible option. This artifact also relates to my other artifact, which is a WPA poster against drinking and driving. I think it would be interesting towards the end of my speech to bring up other the similarities and differences on how the federal government and private companies attempt to persuade and inform the public about societal vices.

The issue of vaping is a hot topic right now due to the recent deaths of teenagers across the country. After all, this was suppose to be the generation not addicted to nicotine. But in the wake of these deaths, concern has arisen about the safety of these devices and as a result, the companies that manufacture them are launching campaigns in an attempt to sway public opinion. This exact scenario is not new to the tobacco and nicotine industry, as they came under fire for the health risk associated with cigarettes as more and more doctors became privy to their harmful nature. The poster displayed above is an advertisement published by Lucky Strike and this poster effectively accomplishes the two things. It disassociates their particular brand from the known health risks, and appeals to people may use another brand. The poster does this by using the simple catchphrase “It’s toasted”, these simple two words convey the message that Lucky cigarettes are different from the competition. Other cigarettes may be poisonous but Lucky’s are toasted, a word that has a natural and almost healthy connotation to it. This message is aided by the writing that says the toasting takes out the coughing and throat irritation, obviously this is not true but they are masking the true damaging nature of their product by using language to superficially elevate their cigarettes over the competition. In order to further appeal to the public, this poster uses a celebrity endorsement of a very famous movie star at the time named John Gilbert. Gilbert had huge box office draw and his appearance on this poster was sure to increase sales, especially if the publication of this poster happened to coincide with a film staring him being released. This poster, in a sense, plays offense and defense pertaining to consumers. It defends against the risks associated with smoking by using the toasted catchphrase and also draws people towards using the product due to an endorsement by a celebrity at the time. Should companies that produce vapes such as JUUL or SMOK need inspiration for their advertising campaigns, I recommend they look to the past to sell more products of the future.

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/576/

This is an iconic poster commissioned by the US Army in 1917 for the purpose of recruiting soldiers during WWI. I am interested in this poster because it is an early example of American propaganda and I have always been in American conflicts. This poster was meant to capitalize on patriotism by displaying Uncle Sam. It was based on a British poster that stated “Your Country needs you!” and I would be interested in researching the number of enlistments to accurately see the effectiveness of this poster after it was put in commission.

http://www.magazineart.org/main.php/v/ads/tobacco/cigarettes/Lucky+Strike+Cigarettes+-1929B.jpg.html

This is a vintage Lucky Strike poster, a cigarette company that is now out of business.  This advertisement is interesting to me because it employees multiple persuasion techniques, such as using a celebrity endorsement and using language to distant themselves from the competition. At the time of this posters issue, doctors were verbally expressing the adverse effects of cigarettes, to counter this, Lucky Strike started using the tag line “It’s Toasted!”, this way, it gave the impression that other cigarettes are poisonous, but Lucky’s are natural and toasted. I believe this marketing campaign was innovative for its time, and would definitely be interested in researching it more by looking into the firm that created it and the sales numbers after it was put into effect.