Are they really anti-smoking ads?
Do the anti-smoking ads with Bill and Svarnick play in your neck of the woods?I watch these ads and they bring to mind a book by Christopher Buckley called “Thank you for Smoking.” In Buckley’s book, the tobacco companies designed their anti-smoking campaigns in a manner that would actually encourage teenagers to start smoking. I watch the Bill and Svarnick ads and wonder if that’s the plan. After all, the only kids in the anti-smoking ads that I see are geeks and losers. They don’t show any of the jocks and the cheerleaders and the popular kids promoting anti-smoking. They have two D&D rejects (get real, we never wore campaign clothes to school). They have another ad where 2 guys are together during the day. The one guy’s car backfires and sends off smoke, in cooking class the same guy’s turkey is burned and covered in a cloud. During science class, the 2nd kid has to get a fire extinguisher to put out the first guy’s experiment. The final scene is the 2nd kid watching the 1st kid light up a cigarette and the narrator said, “Think there’s a connection?” The ad still contains subtle messages; the smoking kid is dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. The 2nd kid is in slacks and a button down shirt. What teenager wears slacks and a dress shirt to school if they don’t have too?
I just can’t help but think that a lot of the anti-smoking ads are just a reverse Joe Camel. They’re designed to make teenagers think that only freaks don’t smoke.
posted by Shondratasha @ 10:05
2 Comments:
it is wierd that you say they are geeks and nerds, cause the guy who plays svarnick is my best friend, and he deffinately is not a nerd. he is really popular. so you have got that all wrong, they are just being funny so that people will watch the commercials
He may be popular but in the ad, he plays a geek. Have you analyzed the ads? Do you see how the other "cool" teenagers in the ads look bored when Bill and Svarnick talk. The latest ad has the school paper making fun of them. The high schools here make fun of the ads. If anything, the ads aren't designed to make kids stop smoking or even to keep them from starting. The result of the ads is to reinstate that weird kids don't smoke and normal kids do smoke.
Your friend may think he's being funny but he's helping the tobacco companies to keep selling the image to kids that the popular kids smoke and the only kids who don't are the "funny" weird kids not the "funny" ha-ha kids.
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