Swisher Sweet Advertisement example essay topic

Advertising In The 90'S Advertising In The 90'S Essay, Research Paper From infancy to adulthood, Americans breathe the air of advertising without knowing it. It floods our minds with pictures of perfection easy to attain. Face cream will banish age, the right beer endows you with hearty masculine identity, and everything from deodorant to cigarettes bring on love affairs. Moreover, all the people depicted in these advertisements are beautiful. Dare I say this is not the true world?

Robert Nozick, a highly respected professor at Harvard University, believes that businesses, including advertising, cannot morally infringe on someone's rights for any purpose, even if it means promoting the general good of society. (7) Advertising, especially in the 90's, has focused its attention towards the younger generation. Reports show that children's advertising topped $200 billion last year, a 24% increase from 1990, and a 89% increase from 1980. (1) The Federal Trade Commission also announced that last year children seen between 20-40 thousand advertisements aimed at winning their business, 2000 of which were for beer and wine. (4) McNeal divides this advertising escalation into three parts. The first group he considers the primary market, which is based on the direct spending of children, and brings in approximately $24.4 billion annually.

The second group, the influence market, is the amount of parental spending that occurs from children's nagging, which brings in approximately $300 billion. The final group, known as the future market, is the spending children will do for the rest of their lives. (2) Roughly speaking, a child who is a potential customer for life could be worth $100,000 to a company. (3) Keeping these statistics in mind, alone with the tactics used by advertisers and Robert Nozick's opinion, let us evaluate an advertisement to see if advertisers create an existing reality, or if they merely distort reality. The advertisement, brought to us by Swisher Sweet Cigar Company, depicts a scene alluring to the eye, especially to the eye of a teenager. William Lutz, the editor of Quarterly Review of Doublespeak, a magazine dedicated to the eradication of misleading official statements, would declare that this ad manipulates consumers into believing this product can richly fulfill one's life.

It is obvious from the placement of the cigar boxes upfront, that the advertisers are trying to suggest that the cigars are as natural and pure as the environment depicted in the scene. Not only do the advertisers promote smoking as a natural and clean activity, but also they portray it in a seductive fashion. Here we have a young male and female alone in the wilderness, both looking seductively at one another. It seems apparent that the female is overwhelmingly turned-on by the male smoking this sweet cigar. By portraying the cigars in such a fashion, the advertisers promote that these cigars will ultimately enhance a person's love life. The phrase It doesn t get any sweeter than this is something many experts would consider doublespeak.

Webster defines doublespeak as language used to deceive, usually through concealment or misrepresentation of the truth. Swisher Sweet has used the word sweet as a pun, which can be interpreted three ways. The first way, which is the most obvious, is that life cannot get any sweeter than the scene depicted in the ad. Secondly, sweet can imply that the cigar can only add to the sweetness of the moment, as it has in the ad. Thirdly, sweeter can suggest that nothing else taste as sweet as this cigar. By observing the ad, consumers can tell that the advertisers have purposely used a vague phrase that not only misrepresents its product, but also creates a vision beyond the reach of the majority of the people exposed to the ad.

By creating this false reality, the advertisers feed off human weaknesses and exaggerates the significance of the product, encouraging impure vanities. The ad's clever wording and pure visual image presents a possible moral infringement upon under aged individuals who might misrepresent its meaning. As we observed in the ad, advertisers use several methods to manipulate consumers, including exaggeration and physiological appeals. However, other issues besides advertising practices come into play. Many American families are concerned about the effects these advertisements have on their children. For example, one issue that arises is the effect on children's values and goals- in particular the increase in materialism.

Children are taught that the key to solving life's tribulations is not through education and hard work, but rather through materialism. Another issue that concerns parents is the lessons learned in these advertisements. Children are taught that buying products will make them content, and are taught that this is permissible behavior. Kids are eager learners, says James McNeal.

(2) Advertising targeted at elementary school children on programs just for them, works effectively in the sense that it implants brand names in their minds, and a desire for the product. The third issue brought to attention by parents is the health effects of advertising. Even though 30% of American children are obese, advertisers continue to fill the airwaves with appetizing commercials of Big Macs and junk foods. (6) Advertisers such as Camel cigarettes and Anheuser-Busch, who use such characters as frogs, lizards, and cartoon figures to depict their products, only add to wood to the growing fire.

By depicting the products in such a humorous fashion, advertisers enhance children to engage in the same behavior, sometimes even before they are of legal age. Todd McFarlane, the owner of McFarlane Toys, was recently given an award for creating the most bizarre and best-selling toys on the market. However, when asked if he would let his own children have them, he replied, Are you kidding, I m still a dad after 5 o clock. (5) It is obvious not only from the statistics, but from the Swisher Sweet advertisement, that American advertisers still have a long way to go.

The repeated exposure to annoying and misleading advertisements not only hurt company profits, but also can lead consumers away from the honest and considerate companies. However, by taking certain precautions, advertisers can not only advertise more efficiently, but they can do so in a way that does not violate the rights of the consumers. One solution, in which a business could take, is to employee parents who could act as critics and determine for themselves if a particular advertisement is one that they would mine their children viewing. In doing so, you get a consensus before the ad ever reaches its intended audience.

In addition, by involving the public, the advertisers show that they are genuine in their action; allowing them to gain back the trust and respect of the public. Secondly, advertisers could use their persuasiveness to enable parents to spend more quality time with their children. Advertisers could attract kids away from screen-based activities (computers, video games, etc) by making boring activities seem fun. This scheme works because children always love to play grown up. Many adults continue to use products that their parents used because they bring back memories from their childhood.

Not only does this type of advertising recruit life-long loyalist, but also the advertisers promote their product (s) in an ethical fashion. Finally, a business could opt to hire advertising agencies convening a separate ethics panel (separate from the creative side of the business) whose sole purpose is to review campaigns for potential socially responsible advertising. This committee could act much like the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, and could hear and investigate complaints, as well as negotiate new solutions. It would also need to be separate from creative, because sometimes the creators of a campaign get so caught up in their work, that they can no longer see its other implications. From infancy to adulthood, Americans breathe the air of advertising without knowing it.