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Monday, September 29, 2014

Vintage Cigarette Commercial

https://archive.org/details/newport_4

The video I chose is a commercial made in the 1960s for Newport Cigarettes.  It shows a man, who is clearly bored, watching television. A cigarette commercial comes onto the mans tv.  It depicts a happy couple smoking on the beach. Suddenly, the characters come out of the screen and hand the man one of their cigarettes, which seems to drastically improve his mood.
I found this commercial particularly interesting because the combination of its strategy ("this product will make you happy") and subject (cigarettes) is completely laughable today. Such an ad for cigarettes would never exist in today's society now that the health risks of cigarettes have been extensively documented. Despite the ironies, this commercial is still clearly very well made and it uses strategies that are recognizable to this day.  Though what the commercial portrays is known today to be wrong, it is easy to see how this happy commercial, and others like it, could have had an affect on the market during its time. I think the lesson to be learned here is that advertising is timeless. Though the products being advertised cycle through and change, the principles and strategies of advertising by and large remain the same.

3 comments:

  1. I also find the commercial to be really interesting! The idea that they used for the commercial had definitely attracted the audiences' attentions during that time. However, instead of having commercials that encourages smoking nowadays, it's more likely for us to be watching commercials that discourages everyone from smoking. Smoking advertisements have definitely transformed a lot!

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  2. That's definitely an interesting commercial. While the message that cigarettes will make you happy is clearly wrong, I agree with you that companies today still advertise their products similarly. I don't think it's effectiveness will ever change.

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  3. This commercial is very interesting and definitely is relatable to modern day. So many commercials and advertisements want their audience to think if they use their product then their life will be better. It is fascinating to see that this same strategy was used so long ago. It grabs the audience's attention and is very effective.

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