Smoking kills you, please buy our product![BR] Salem; a magical and just the right name to attract smokers for buying the product, that’s of course cigarettes. In the past, Salem has always been somewhat synonymous with the infamous witch trials and was known for witch craft. What makes the advertisement interesting is its very unique way of presenting the product and in general it gives that magical affect too. While I was flipping through an issue of ‘W’ magazine looking for all the slamming designs and also a review on the Critical Eye, I came across this ad for Salem cigarettes. This magazine mainly has readers consisting of adults and more specifically women. The advertiser promotes the product by showing it intensely delicious and refreshing. In general, it’s quite effective for persuading consumers to buy this product. The advertisement has a black background to give it an intense, deep appearance. Even though in the very centre is the symbol or the logo for this product, the attention still moves towards the women’s eyes located right above the symbol, that are just so attractive and as magical as the product’s name itself. The overall advertisement guides the eye to a particular direction because of those curvy shapes that lead you to the eyes first and then the product the advertiser intends to sell. In the foreground, there are actually two flavours offered by this product and each has its own distinctive taste as I can judge that by reading the slogans right below them; for Black Label it says, ‘Mysteriously Rich Deliciously Intense’ and for Green Label it says, ‘Intriguingly Smooth Refreshingly Spirited’, which makes a viewer imagine the taste easily. On the upper left hand corner is the product name ‘Salem’ in front of its minimized logo and on the bottom left hand corner is the ‘Surgeon General’s Warning: Smoking By Pregnant Women May Result in Fetal Injury, Premature Birth and Low Birth Weight’. This advertisement is crafted for the purpose of appealing to specific characteristics in the hopes of drawing attention and appealing to the senses of prospective buyers. The main purpose of this ad is to appeal to as many consumers as possible. Every aspect of the full page ad creams to the viewer to smoke for pleasure and for independence. The technique of the advertiser used here are the sensual imagery that appeals to the senses. But the image of the woman’s eyes here represents the ‘free spirit of the woman’. These are the very basic infrastructure of the males’ psyche by creating a jingle that annoyingly sticks to their mind. I see the visual elements created here are very effective and definitely have a huge impact on the advertisement itself. Eyes are meant to be the most expressive feature and the logo acts as that magic ball and eyes of a magician, usually women, who knew magic and used magic balls to perform their skills.
The whole scene again depicts a spell or a magic related to Salem. Although the overall advertisement is undoubtedly convincing, it is still biased and at the same time contradicting. Even with the Surgeon General’s Warning, it is still biased because the warning is only meant to be for pregnant women instead of generally warning everyone, as smoking is injurious to health. But the advertiser will do whatever they can to reach this ultimate goal of selling the product. Basically the ‘W’ magazine is meant to be only for adults and they do have a better idea of what is right and wrong for them, teens are the main target of this advertisement. The images that the advertiser portrays in this advertisement shows smoking as being the cool thing to do. All these accounts are attempts to further attract consumers to purchase cigarettes. The over all composition of the advertisement works just marvelously. The colour usage works very well for the ad. The colours black and green themselves work in harmony and each colour’s mood is well described under each label of the cigarettes’ pack. Here the colours are very simple yet vibrant and the white colour strip between the yin yang symbol acts as a separation but bond at the same time and shows the first letter of the product’s name ‘Salem’. Here the shape, line and texture co-ordinate with each other, in fact they get along together very well. White spaces are used for some important issues against the black background; making the first letter of the product i.e. ‘Salem’ in the symbol appear more prominently and on the lower left hand corner warning box too. We even see the slogans and the label in white to make it prominent for the viewer to read. The focal point is the eyes with the logo beneath. Having to look at it in general I see it very attractive. Though the advertisement is convincing but it is overdone because there are too many slogans and for an effective advertisement there should be one slogan to make it ‘catchy’ for the viewer to remember. However I think this ad is still very strong despite of too many slogans they are still catchy and makes you want to smoke.