Ouch. That really does look bloody painful. With an emphasis on the bloody. Anti-smoking campaigns never pull their punches, but this latest video - directed by the famous British photographer Rankin and Chris Cottam for UK NHS - takes it to the extreme. And it's causing a bit of a stir.
Past campaigns have delivered graphic images of clogged up arteries and interviews with dying smokers. Changing tack to demonstrate the damaging effects of smoking in a symbolic way, this video shows a smoker brually beaten to a pulp on a street corner as he takes a drag on a cigarette.
Effective? Or over the top? Hard hitting? Or is the director revelling in the violence? It's certainly getting tongues wagging. What do you think?
(Incidentally, it may have been more effective if the voiceover at the end, telling us to "fight back...quit now" wasn't spoken by someone who sounds as if he's been chain smoking filterless fags for the past 30 years).
Note: as the contents of this video are extremely graphic, you'll need to be over 18 to watch this...
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A tad too graphic
Initially I didn't make the connection between the ad and smoking, which to me made it just brutal and shocking without meaning; as a quitter who has recently fallen off the wagon, it had very little effect on me other than to make me feel sorry for the guy and think about street violence in the UK! Which I am guessing is not the intention, and Neil is right, the voice at the end is that of a skilled smoker - he's had years of practice beating his body up, I'd put money on it.
Not sure this is effective as a campaign; it's in the same vein as the old drink driving ad where the pretty young lady got 'hit' by a car in a pub - it didn't actually happen but you see her smashed up face on the pub table, now this, had an effect on me. I think because drink driving is a very clear and visible thing, but the effects of smoking are not visible until it is all way, way too late.
Not sure what is going to stop a nation of smokers smoking, but having battled with this addiction for 12 years, my input would be better education right at the beginning so people aren't as inclined to ever take up the habit; advertising campaigns should aim to prevent 16-18 year olds wanting to take up smoking.
Smoking Advertisement
Excellent. Graphic, however it effectively gets the message accross. Compelling and Memorable.
Paul
The Brandsurgeon
Paul...
Thanks for your comments.
Graphic is what's memorable these days...
with so many marketing messages out there, it's no wonder (given the wimpy budget the anti-smoking campaign has compared with the financial might of the tobacco companies) that the ad is so heavy.
As a child I received all the anti-smoking messages, my dad and several adults i knew smoked. Curiosity rather than peer pressure led me to begin smolking. I liked a cigarette... that is until I began to hate myself for feeling powerless against it about 4 years later. Then the real battle began. I wanted control back. Today I have that control, but never take it for granted that this will always be the case. A smoker is always a smoker, just as an alcoholic is always an alcoholic. Many sources have reported cigarette smoking to be as addictive as heroin.
People know the logical and rational arguments, we choose to ignore them because we all think we're different and what applies to the majority will never apply to us. If youth is wasted on the young, it's beacsue we all think we're invincible, or know better than the next person, right? This campaign shows we're far from invincible. Governments and big business profit from our stupidity, and then we become casualties. Someone will always be there to say "I told you so". Abuse anything and invariably it abuses you back. This campaign shows exactly that.