Joe Camel is known world wide and has always been associated with Camel cigarettes. He has always been know to be cool and his coolness is always in conjunction with a cigarette. Perfect pair right, coolness, sex appeal and cigarettes? Apparently not! This ad shows Joe and his comrades checked in for chemotherapy due to the cancer they got from the cigarettes that they advertised for so many years. This ad contains the same old Joe but he doesn't look so great. He has dark circles around his eyes, he is hooked up to an IV and the familiar lettering used to spell out Joe Camel now spells out Joe Chemo. The ever so appealing popular status is now being demonstrated in this ad as a habit that is not so appealing. This ad is affective because now that the indestructable image of Joe Camel and been reduced to a cancer suffering patient perhaps more people will pay attention. The surgeon general's warning that is printed on the side of each pack is not visual proof that something serious could and probably will happen. Now that people have been subjected to the mascot of the cigarette brand having health problems, maybe people will stop and think before they light up their next cigarette!
4 comments:
It is interesting how all of the figures are "Joe Camel"; I think that this infers it doesn't matter who you are, if you smoke you will end up like this, and you will look like everyone else. And like you said, something once assoicated with being "cool" is now something scary and sad in some ways. Interesting how they show what happens to the mascot of cigarettes is what will happen to everyone.
I find this ad to be humorous because as you said Joe Camel is known for being Joe cool and as he is dying he is still portrayed as being very cool, almost sly. Joe has always been shown to be untouchable when it comes to the effects that smoking can have on a person. This ad shows that smoking will eventually take its toll on all even Joe Camel.
This ad shows the reality of something that is made so attractive. It is showing us that cigarettes don't actually make you cool and sexy, they usually end up making you sick. However, I don't know if this ad will keep anyone from smoking. It's not like the information about the bad effects of cigarette smoking is unknown, but that hasn't stopped a lot of my friends from smoking.
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