Next time, why not add little floating pieces of ash to represent the WTC workers who jumped to their deaths?
(click ad to read copy)
If you don't quit smoking, the terrorists will have won.
New anti-smoking print ad by DDB New Zealand for ASH (Action on Smoking and Health). Doyle Dane Bernbach, of course, has a long legacy of whip-smart, original creative thought. So, I'm sure the men (yes, it was all men) who created this masterpiece had no knowledge of the anti-smoking ad from last September by the Khaleej Times in Dubai that featured the exact same cheap visual trick. Maybe—just a suggestion here—it's time for the world's insensitive, hackneyed ad peoples to exploit some other past tragedies in their efforts to win those oh-so-important ad awards.
posted by copyranter @ 9:00 AM
39 Comments:
Just lame. Not your post, the advertisement. I have no problem offending people, but at least make it make sense.
Perhaps the holocaust could in some way be leveraged as an anti-smoking ad.
Good Christ. Don't tell me your embittered pose is wearing thin?
I can fake it any number of ways.
Jim Jones and drunk drivers, Auschwitz and Obesity...
I am just suggesting new possible tasteless ways for those meatwhistles to use.
Excellent ad, much better than the Dubai one, which didn't get much publicity outside of Middle East and South Asia.
I think terrorism is overexaggerated in terms of affect, but tobacco is in my opinion much more harmful because it is legal.
I am an American cigarette smoker but I think cigarettes must be banned and hopefully will be in my lifetime.
Don’t be a douche…
You had a choice the day you decided to smoke and you have the choice to quit smoking. I know it’s hard to quit because I’ve done it, but in the end you are the idiot that smokes.
Please point out the people to me that chose to be a victim of 9/11 or to be a victim at the hands of a suicide bomber?
That’s why it is offensive.
Well besides the fact that it is an unethical SCAM AD meant to defraud and lie to colleagues and industry peers, it is worse that it is distasteful, direspectful, and opportunistic. I bet the creatives thinks they're so witty too.
I'm an ex-smoker who finds ex-smoking scolds obnoxious. I think smoking bans in bars are silly, same with ballparks (as if a cigarette is going to befoul the pristine air at the center of a 50,000 car parking lot.)
I also think that 9/11 was a sad day--but not a Holy Day--and that smoking is unhealthy. So any message that emphasizes the downside of tobacco without imposing this opinion on people is fine with me.
The fact that the ad pissed so many people off tells me it's working.
Jessie said...
Perhaps the holocaust could in some way be leveraged as an anti-smoking ad.
The Holocaust has already been leveraged enough.
Does this mean we get to blame smokers for Iraq?
What an irresponsible ad...
Like Smedley said, it is actually a highly effective ad, because it creates controversy and gets its message out to less educated people who think 9/11 killed more people than cigarettes do. It is these people -- conservative Americans -- who will hopefully be conditioned to either have a lower opinion of cigarettes or create a subconscious relationship between cigarettes and 9/11.
Either way, excellent ad.
It's an unfortunate exploitation of a powerful but unrelated image.
The fact that nattering professionals are discussing the ad does not mean that it is effective.
Who ever smokes two cigarettes at a time anyway?
The fact that the ad pissed so many people off tells me it's working.
Really? I would think that the real determinant of whether the ad works is whether or not it gets people to quit smoking.
Hell, if I'd known the secret to writing effective copy was to piss people off, I could have made a shitload more money during my years in the industry.
My first thought is that we need to make more terrorists start smoking....a lot!
I don't find it offensive- I find it stupid.
Excellent point Spencer- it only works if it makes people quit.
It's OK to provoke thought, and I tend to challenge the limits of good taste in my own work. Unfortunately, this is just stupid.
I'd rather see pictures of tar-blackened cadaver lungs- I think they're more effective.
"The fact that the ad pissed so many people off tells me it's working."
I'm a lifelong non-smoker, but this ad has compelled me to take up the habit. I'm going to buy a carton of unfiltered Camels on the way home.
At least it's not a picture of a gestapo's giant boot crushing a cigar with the face of a black man as the ashes; in the old days that's how the health freaks used to depict the 'dirty' people.
So that's some improvement for the anti-smoking movement.
Ironic, maybe, but this ad reminded me of a story I read after 9/11. Many of the people who survived the second tower attack were smokers who, while everyone was being ushered back inside after the first plane hit next door— "it's all safe; everyone back to work" — took the opportunity to stay on the elevators and head down to street level for a smoke.
Conservative Americans are perfectly well aware that smoking causes more deaths than the 9/11 terrorists. But we believe that dying because of one's own choices is much preferable to dying because of other people's choices.
Over a million people a year die because of car accidents.
Let's all stop driving.
Let's call for a "war on death."
Yup. It's a VERY effective ad. Before I even got through it I had the urge to light up a camel.
But it pisses people off. So it must be working. lol
Fargin' ASH-holes.
Great ad. I work in the health insurance industry and pray every day to our Lord that cigarettes will be banned.
Smoking kills far more people than terrorism ever did or ever will, wake up liberals!
Using Cuban cigars would have at least accomplished some sort of real terrorist tie-in.
We're all so brave when it comes to offending Americans, because we know deep down inside in places we won't admit that the good ole USA has freedom of expression and the ad thus has the right to offend. Anti-smoking lobbyists should be really courageous and parody the Muhammad cartoons to get their message across. More women die from hour killing than those who died in 9-11. Won't happen, because our society's faux-bravery is so one-way and directed at the targets of least resistance.
The people who created this ad should be taken out and shot. Aside from the fact that it is extremely offensive and distasteful, it is also stupid. People don't fall over and die from smoking a cigarette. Tobacco use over time can increase your risk of certain diseases and cancers, but that often strikes people near the end of their lives when they don't have many years left. Smoking does provide a useful stress relief for many and in those cases smoking may actually be a slight benefit.
William, if you're not a tobacco company hack you coulda fooled me.
Tell me what it is like to live in denial.
I particularly like the anonymous comment about working in the health insurance industry and praying to the Lord that cigarettes will be banned... The health insurance industry LOVES smokers... you get more money from them! And isn´t it quite "liberal" to ban things? More government regulation and the like? I think you´re confused.
And by the way, after 9/11 those of us who lived in the area inhaled more health-risking smoke than we ever could have second-hand in a bar!
And isn´t it quite "liberal" to ban things?
Yeah, like all those goddamn dirty liberals who want to ban gay marriage!
Oh, wait a second . . .
This is an ad...the purpose of an ad is to shock in order to make a strong impression, if not a point....
As far the analogy with the 9/11..can the American people just get it fucking over with? Like you are the ONLY contry in the world to have ever been attacked....
"Perhaps the holocaust could in some way be leveraged as an anti-smoking ad"
How can you dare comparing the Holocaust and 9/11....
The ad sucks klem. Just go ahead and take another bite of that Wrong Sandwich.
The real terrorists in the whole matter of fact are our leaders who don't put a stop to cigarette smoking. Smoking kills 5 million people annually in the world.
Now, even with the twin tower + soldiers killed over in Iraq + more than a million "humans" who got slaughtered over in Iraq in the 10 or so years would not even add to what the tobacco companies do every year.
In the time taken to read 3 paragraphs there has been 9 deaths from smoking attributed diseases (thats 9 people every minute dead).
HI , I AM TEJASWINI SINGH,beaing a emotional person i am more consious about terrorism.this ad is very impact ful and very creative.
John you really are the propogandists dream, all the figures off by rote, the fact is not one death has yet been fully an scientiffically proven to have been caused by smoking, in fact most of the people I have known in my long life that have died have been lifetime nonsmokers, yet the smokers soldier on in rude good health,
The old Question that is asked to all these non smoking groups is to name just three, they never have and never will because the proof just isnt there.
@Anonymous 2:30 PM:
Please explain to me how being a liberal makes one unable to believe that smoking kills more people than terrorism does. I really want to hear how you came to that conclusion.
And you work in the health insurance industry? The industry you work in kills approximately 20,000 people per year by systematically denying people coverage for "preexisting conditions" and taking away people's coverage when they get sick. You pray every day to our Lord? Who's your lord? Darth Vader?
You and others like you disgust me. And don't give me a sob story about how you're a low-level employee "jus' doin' maw job." You're serving the evil monopolies that make money hand over fist off of the death and suffering of their fellow Americans. Disgusting.
Smoking is one of the powerful addictions, which can lead to death. Small percentage of reduction in smoking is beneficial for the health. Even with the well-known heart, blood pressure, and cancer risks can be avoid by quitting smoking as early as possible. Many smokers try to quit smoking but they are so much addicted to it they fails to quit smoking.
The function of an ad is to attract attention. There are two ways to consider the idea of not smoking: approval and denial.
This ad has spawned a conversation (inane as it may be in many respects) that provokes a question as to the advisability of smoking. No ad will make anyone quit, but an ad that makes them consider quitting is, in fact, an effective and successful ad.
As for the prohibitionist: Banning smoking will only create a new crime.
Dude you seriously have a problem. I think you should avoid mirrors because you would hate yourself too, I am sure. I do hate a few things myself too but I have a good reason, I am that short guy.
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