Anti-Cigarette Ad

         This surgeon general anti-cigarette ad represents the change in public opinion when it comes to cigarettes.  The two cowboys are heading into the sunset, an obvious representation for cigarettes.  For the decades of the fifties and sixties, cowboys were often pictured in each cigarette company’s ads because they were seen as manly and tough.  This ad supposedly shows two of these cowboys, who miss their lungs because of the years of smoking.  The obvious color contrast gets the message of the advertisement across.  In the huge white letters, the cowboys complain about the effects of their years of smoking.  The two men are mere shadows, with no defined featured other than an outline of them with a cowboy hat on top.  The men are just a shadow of what they once were because of their smoking habit. The surgeon general’s office still uses their usual label at the bottom left of the ad, but it is small so as to not take away from the general effect of the scenic sunset and the two cowboys.  The literal embodiment of “riding off into the sunset” of course represents death, one of the possible effects of too much cigarette smoking.  It is a key for the advertisement to take what people used to associate with cigarettes and change it completely.  By using the common cigarette company symbol of the cowboys, the surgeon general places doubt into the minds of older smokers, who had once seen these same cowboys with smiles on their faces and cigarettes in their mouths.

Old Spice Does It Again

Old Spice once again shows one of the most random advertising campaigns ever.  In this ad, in ESPN the Magazine, you can see a girl eating an ice cream cone very seductively.  However, this has absolutely nothing to do with the product that Old Spice happens to be selling, which is their Red Zone body wash.  The text makes it a funny connection to the slogan “Keep it clean.”  The girl is attractive and, naturally, the viewer assumes that Old Spice is trying to say that, if you use their body wash, you can get girls like her.  Instead, Old Spice takes a different approach.  They attempt to get your mind out of the gutter with the next few lines.  So what that she’s hot?  She’s not trying to seduce you, she just likes ice cream and it’s hot outside.  There is no more simple answer than that.  It is interesting to see the size text in this ad also.  “Old Spice” is in huge letters across the bottom, it takes up almost triple the space as the picture of the actual product.  The explanation of the picture just above the Old Spice logo is the smallest text on the page, adding some irony into the whole ad.  The picture is the only spot where the actual product is mentioned, but Old Spice is selling their body wash off of the fact that it is from Old Spice, not that it is Red Zone body wash.  In the slogan, it is underlined and we can all guess what that means above the body wash.  Old Spice once again proves that it is not a normal men’s company, going for more irony and humor rather than the obvious sex appeal that most men’s deodorant and body wash companies go for.