Advertising is all around us, and is something that is impossible to escape. Whether we’re on our personal devices, watching our favorite television programs or sports, or driving to work or school, we can’t avoid the millions of advertisements that are planted for us to see.
These advertisements aren’t created without any thought behind them. Advertisers do research to determine what demographics they should be targeting with their ads, whether they should be funny or emotional, use celebrities or everyday people, and what type of lifestyle they should sell with their message or product.
As consumers, there are some ads that we love or hate, some that make us laugh or make us cry, and some that we will easily forget or remember forever. Growing up, there have been very few advertising campaigns that have stuck with me for emotional reasons. However, there is one campaign that sticks out amongst the others.
In the early 2010s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ran an anti-smoking campaign that highlighted the stories of former smokers and their individual battles to quit smoking. In order to strike fear into the general public, most of the stories chosen focus on those who have had drastic changes in their lives occur due to smoking or those who have lost family members because of it.
Although no one in my family was smoker growing up, these advertisements instilled a fear in me that made me want to protect all my family and friends from the danger’s of smoking as we all grew older. While I never felt a desire towards smoking growing up, especially with all the research about the harms that came with this habit, these ads made me even more sure that I would never want to become a smoker.
The CDC still features these stories on their websites, along with other resources to help individuals begin their journey to quit smoking. This campaign has likely ran for so long because of its impact on individuals across the country, making them fear the consequences that come with smoking.
The impact that these ads have had since they began airing almost ten years ago prove them to be great works of advertising. Although they fall under the sub-category of Public Service Announcements (PSAs), they are still influencing the general public. These ads are great because they get an emotional response from those see them and result in major lifestyle changes.
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