At the beginning of the commercial, we see a slow zoom in on a small convenience store at the dead of night. Those few seconds leave us time to anticipate what sort of shady deal will be occurring there.
A cut to inside the convenience store, and we see a man asking for a pack of cigarettes. The intent of the creator of this ad is to have you associate cigarettes with a sort of shady, not on the up-and-up sort of feeling.
A cut to the man's ID and a small wad of cash. Personally, when I first saw that small wad of cash, I was wondering why the man was paying so much for a pack of cigarettes. Looking more closely, it looks like the wad contains a five and one or two ones, which I suppose is the right price for a pack of cigarettes today.
It was surprising, then, when the cashier said "It's not enough." Perhaps the smoker forgot to factor in the tax? The man reaches in his pocket, for what we assume is his wallet, and he instead grabs a pair of pliers. We have a half a moment to think about what he is going to do with those pliers as he goes for his mouth.
 |
| Smile for the camera. |
Indeed, that is the main point that the ad is trying to convey - that smoking can cost you your teeth.
I really loved how you described the ad. Your post really engages reader till the end. However, it would be interesting if you put more thought to the ad. Beside this, I really like your writing style.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the statement that "the audience is supposed to think that smoking allows one to painlessly remove one's teeth". I think the message is to show people that losing your teeth is an expected and regular side effect of smoking.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you described the commercial leading up to your main point on Pathos. I agree with Sarah' disagreement on the statement "the audience is suppose to think that smoking allows one to painlessly remove one's teeth". I thought the message was to show the costs of smoking like losing teeth. Losing teeth is common side effect for smokers.
ReplyDeleteOverall I, like Sai, loved how you kept the readers engaged by describing the commercial in depth. I do think that you could've analyzed the pathos in the commercial a bit more. I have always seen this commercial played on MTV, a channel whose general audience is teenagers. I think you could have talked about how this commercial appeals to the emotions of the teenagers watching it.
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent post and description of the commercial. I do think you could add a sentence or two about relating pathos of the commercial and the target audience of these commercials.
ReplyDelete