Small Assignment I Unit II Visual Rhetorical Analysis

A Visual Rhetorical Analysis of Lucky Strike Cigarettes:

Tobacco was not originally intended to be used as a predatory marketing tool to be used against vulnerable groups in society but that is indeed what America transferred it into. Tobacco was originally cultivated and utilized by Native Americans for religious and medical purposes as a cure-all remedy. However, over time tobacco began to spread rather quickly around the world leading to a shift in its main uses. In the 16th century beggars in Sevilla started to pick up discarded tobacco buds and rolled them in papers to smoke. They became known as “little cigarettes”, and in the late 18th century they began to acquire respectability. Little cigarettes were starting to become circulated by traders and military troops in Italy, Portugal, and Russia and throughout the Napoleon and Crimean wars. Simultaneously gained popularity in the U.S which eventually led up to the modernization of what we know cigarettes to be today. In 1880 James A. Bonsack patented the machine that would continuously feed tobacco onto a strip of paper then would be pasted, closed, and cut into lengths by a rotary knife. The Bonsack machine was then imported to England in 1883. The modern-day purpose of cigarettes is to act as a fast way to deliver nicotine into the body in an acceptable and attractive form. The cigarette was modernized to fit the purpose of hooking customers with nicotine, but it serves as one of the most successful examples of target marketing. In regards to the Lucky Strike Ad, Edward Bernays was the one who successfully targeted women in Cigarette ads just like this one by marketing the cigarette as a symbol for women’s suffrage. Lucky Strike is one out of many tobacco companies that use this carefully crafted technique made by Bernays. Its main focal point is to persuade women to buy Lucky Strike cigarettes by claiming it will help them keep a slim figure, a popular beauty standard at the time. To enforce these efforts in their advertisements the Lucky Strike design team uses pathos, logos, and briefly ethos to further convey and persuade the desired message to their audience.

One instance of an appeal to pathos is the overall ambiance of the ad due to its refreshing and energizing nature created by having the background color be a pastel shade of green. The green invokes a feeling of approachability and attractiveness because the ad is specifically designed to target women. Therefore it is significant to bring forth these types of emotions in an attempt to feminize the product and entice potential consumers. The green also represents light and airy things, objects that might have an appealing smell like flowers, which are garnered more towards women. The bolded letters at the top of the ad reinforce these attempts as an appeal to pathos by tapping into the wants and desires of this particular demographic and tying those desires into what they are trying to sell. For women, being slim, attractive, and healthy were highly valued characteristics at the time, so saying “ To keep a slender figure” catches the viewer’s eye almost instantly. In addition, a woman can be seen with her head tilted upwards being centered in the ad making her the focal point of what’s being viewed. Having her be slim, attractive, and healthily flushed be the focal point of the ad insinuates to the viewer that desired looks and smoking Lucky Strike are directly linked. What makes these elements so strong is the collaboration between text and images that both appeals to pathos trying to convince the viewer by emotional means to get the desired result, which is to buy the product. Persuading by emotional means results in the marketing of the cigarette to be less of a manly tobacco product and more of a form to lose weight and relieve the stress of not looking a certain way.

Another method of persuasion used is an appeal to logos, mostly using the text that surrounds the images. An example can be drawn from the phrase “It’s toasted” which is located in the bottom right corner of the ad. It was almost as if it were the final attempt to dispel any doubts the viewer may experience when looking at this ad. Due to the ad demanding, not necessarily suggesting to pick up a cigarette instead of a sweet can put off a potential customer if one compares how many times the urge to eat a sweet comes to mind. However, Toasted tobacco was known to be easier to inhale and not scratch up or hurt the throat or mouth after a while. To refute these concerns it was addressed in time to regain footing in the persuasion of purchasing Lucky Strikes. These logos appeals are also closely intertwined with ethos, the use of authority to persuade the audience. The demand to pick up the cigarette instead of a sweet falls under the ethos approach because these are huge corporations running under a highly successful industry, and the viewer is aware of this. It’s easy to trust a large company when they vocalize their expertise in the industry that the common person may not have. Not to mention ethos can also be applied to the use of the woman being the focal point of the ad because it uses her as the perfect to back up the claim Lucky Strikes makes you skinny. Implying that if she can look this good because of smoking their brand can be a generally successful backing for the wild claims Lucky Strike is attempting to make in their advertisements.

These companies target women’s insecurities and hop on current body trends to incorporate them in their sales pitches to get more profitable outcomes. According to the Truth Initiative, Lucky Strikes this new advertising campaign was credited for an increase in cigarette sales by more than 300%, which is a clear indicator that these appeals worked. In terms of social-cultural attitudes, women’s smoking was seen as taboo and looked down upon. It was seen as non-feminine and controversial until the cigarette companies caught wind of what was happening and used this obstacle to their advantage. These companies shallowly supported women’s suffrage and made it more openly accepted in the public for women to smoke, setting a precedent for women’s independence. All these themes have strong roots in emotions and feelings, logical arguments, and establishing trust by using their expertise which is why these ads are so impactful and successful.

 

 

Works Cited 

“2001 Surgeon General’s Report Highlights: Marketing Cigarettes to Women.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 July 2015, https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/2001/highlights/marketing/. 

“Ad Collections.” SRITA, https://tobacco.stanford.edu/cigarettes/ 

Friend, Matthew. “The Pioneer of Modern Day Advertising and Manipulation.” Medium, Medium, 8 May 2018, https://medium.com/@mafriend/the-pioneer-of-modern-day-advertising-and-manipulation-where-his-legacy-can-be-found-today-ecc8cc205f74. 

“How Tobacco Companies Have Used Women’s History and Equality Struggles to Sell Cigarettes.” Truth Initiative, 13 Mar. 2017, https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/targeted-communities/how-tobacco-companies-have-used-womens-history-and-equality. 

“How Tobacco Companies Hooked Women by ‘Feminizing’ Cigarettes.” Truth Initiative, 7 Apr. 2017, https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/tobacco-industry-marketing/slim-and-stylish-how-tobacco-companies-hooked-women. 

Stine, Stine K. “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: 20th Century Tobacco Advertisements.” National Museum of American History, 17 Mar. 2014, https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2014/03/smoke-gets-in-your-eyes-20th-century-tobacco-advertisements.html.