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Steven Davis
Dr. Spielvogel
CAS 137H, Section 009
10 October 2015
A Better Choice, Affected By Chronos
Madison Avenue aims to influence our opinions, our beliefs, and most importantly, our
actions. Most of the time, advertisements are meant to prompt the purchase of a product, but
not always. In the case of The Bully, a short video advertisement by The Real Cost, the goal is
to prevent the purchase of a productcigarettes. In stark contrast to this goal, a poster
advertisement by Chesterfield cigarettes from the 1950s utilizes different persuasive techniques
to convince onlookers to try its product. In contrast to the Chesterfield advertisement, it is clear
that The Bully draws much of its efficacy from modern assumptions and opinions. These two
advertisements distinct and contrasting kairos, audiences, and persuasive techniques serve to
illuminate eachs different purpose as framed by the society in which they were created.
Each of these advertisements is only a select ad from a series of many advertisements.
The Real Cost advertisements are a series funded by the Food and Drug Administration.
Statistically, ninety percent of adult smokers begin smoking before the age of eighteen, and as
such, the FDAs main intended audience is middle and high school aged students. The examined
Chesterfield advertisement, on the other hand, focuses mostly on those who already smoke, as it
places the Chesterfield brand on a pedestal above all other brands.
This specific FDA advertisement details a bully, who quite obviously personifies a
cigarette, controlling the lives of several school children. This bully acts as the main agent of

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persuasion in the advertisement. Physically, his unwashed, long hair, leather gloves, dirty white
t-shirt, and dark yellow khakis depict a cigarette as gross and disgusting. The bullys actions and
the kids responses throughout the ad serve to paint cigarettes in a negative light; this negative
tone created around cigarettes aims to dissuade viewers from smoking. On the other hand,
imagery and tone are minor contributors to the persuasive message of Chesterfield. Rather, the
ad appeals to logical, albeit pseudoscientific, claims. A scientific study by an unnamed, well
known research organization found Chesterfields to be the only cigarette with no unpleasant
aftertaste. A well-dressed scientist with a microscope and several other scientific claims are also
found on the poster. Multiple logical and authority-based assumptions contribute to the
persuasion of this pro-smoking ad.
The first commonplace exploited by The Bully advertisement is the fact that humans,
teenagers especially, like to have freedom and control over their own lives. The advertisement
invites viewers to interpret cigarettes negatively by showing the opposite of this commonplace.
This is most evidently seen in the repetitive and demanding diction of When I say this, we/you
do that. The bully made several demands in the ad, all of which were met because of the
control he had over the kids. They lost their money, freedom, and privacy. Furthermore, the
friends of these kids who used cigarettes are shown to be disappointed in their choices. This is
especially persuasive for teenagers, as they often seek confirmation from their peers, rather
than adult authority figures. Such a behavior could explain the lack of ethical appeal in this
advertisement. The FDA has done extensive research on the impact of cigarettes, but this is not
made known in the advertisement, the only mention of the FDA is a small blurb at the end of the
ad. Rather, teenagers are more influenced by the logical appeals of the consequences of

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smoking, and the emotional appeals of lost freedom and approval. The ad exploits the
commonplace that freedom and choice are desirable and forces the slogan, Dont let tobacco
control you.
In contrast to the negative tone created by The Real Cost, the Chesterfield
advertisement markets cigarettes positively. As part of their ABC slogan, Chesterfield indicates
that using their product is cooler smoking. This directly contradicts the FDAs ad, where the
choice to smoke resulted in a disappointed social group and lost personal autonomy. This
difference in the definition of cool stems from the context and kairos of the advertisements.
While smoking in the 1950s was a social event and phenomenon, it is now more looked down
upon as a poor stress reliever or bad habit. Each ad and the society in which and for which each
ad was developed results in a different connotation of smoking. Further insight about the
audiences involved can also be seen in the ethical appeal of the two ads. In the anti-smoking
video, appeals to authority are not prevalent, as teenagers are quick to reject authority as a
persuasive or even credible outlet. However, an older audience would appreciate this authority
or credibility. The older audience targeted by Chesterfield is subjected to the image of a scientist
and microscope, the scientist himself smoking a Chesterfield. Here, onlookers can infer that this
accomplished man is able to discuss the science behind cigarettes because of his position as a
scientist. An appeal to credibility is used for the persuasion of an older audience, but not a
younger one.
Next, the FDAs anti-smoking advertisement plays off of the commonplace that bullies
are bad. No one likes a bully, especially in this intended audience of school-aged kids.
Therefore, to utilize this commonplace, the advertisement uses the bully, the personification of a

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cigarette, to negatively portray the product. In this case, extremely condescending diction from
the bully like hey buddy, big boy, and pucker up are heard. These condescending words
create an association between cigarettes and bullies. With this adverse association, the
audience is encouraged to avoid cigarettes, just as they would avoid a bully. Furthermore, the
mood of the advertisement contributes to the negative tone started by the bully. The deep and
loud background music in combination with several sudden, harsh sounds like the slamming of
the locker or the kicking of the students, creates a fearsome atmosphere and overall deleterious
mood. Imagery such as the painful expression on the students faces and the disappointment of
anothers peers contributes as well to the adverse tone. The negative tone created by these
imageries warns against the use of cigarettes and the dependency that comes with them.
Exploiting the commonplace that bullies are bad, the FDA creates the slogan Cigarettes are
Bullies.
On the other hand, the Chesterfield advertisement relies mainly on logical, scientific
appeals, rather than the more emotional association of negativity and bullies. The pro-smoking
poster makes several logical claims. The ad claims no unpleasant after-taste: Science
discovered ityou can prove it! Stemming from this claim, the ad indicates that a taste panel
of an unnamed yet well-known research organization found no unpleasant after-taste. Here,
there is a straightforward logical appeal that studies have proven the superiority of Chesterfield
brand cigarettes. The logical aspect of science, paired with the credibility found in the image of a
scientist using a microscope, results in Chesterfields claim that their cigarettes are Always
Milder, Better Tasting, Cooler Smoking; Always Buy Chesterfield.

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Through the anti-smoking advertisement, the FDA is calling teenagers to join a smokefree community of responsible kids. They portray the lives of teenagers who do smoke,
indicating that a life of autonomy and control is impossible with such a lifestyle. Their ideology is
that when you sell yourself to tobacco, you no longer have control; the cigarettes make decisions
for you. Contrasting this, Chesterfields claims would imply that those who do smoke cigarettes,
especially Chesterfields, are cooler and experience better [taste]. The company asks
customers to prove this coolness for themselves; there is no negative emphasis placed on
cigarettes. Clearly, the societal opinion of tobacco has shifted in the last several decades, from
one of acceptance and excitement to one of negativity and consequence.
Not only has societal opinion of tobacco changed, but also has the use of rhetoric by
advertising agencies. In the 1950s, as seen in the representative Chesterfield ad, companies
often relied on logos, logical appeal, through the use of pseudo-scientific claims. In this ad,
science proved the greatness of Chesterfield cigarettes, yet the well-known research
organization is unnamed, and the results of its study came only from the selected brands that
were tested. With closer analysis of the advertisements, the legitimacy of the science behind
Chesterfields claims can definitely be called into question. Nonetheless, advertisement agencies
in the 1950s viewed the process of persuasion as a fact based process, and their use of pseudoscience is an excellent example of their need to find facts to support an argument. Differently,
modern advertisement agencies view the process of rhetoric as a more emotional ordeal. As
seen in the tone of the FDAs anti-smoking ad, modern advertising use imagery, analogy, or
loaded phrases to make the audience feel a certain way. The various scenes in The Bully ad
aimed to create a negative feeling against cigarettes, a feeling that the audience should seek to

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avoid by avoiding tobacco. Now, emotional responses drive persuasion. Advertisement agencies
have redefined their view of rhetoric from being intellectually and factually based to being more
emotionally centered. Persuasion now targets how one feels, rather than how one thinks.
The different and opposing kairos, audiences, and persuasive techniques of these two
advertisements serve to demonstrate the different purpose of each ad, as framed by the society
in which they were created.

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Works Cited
"Pseudoscience." Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising. 1951. Web. 5 Oct.
2015.
"Video Library." The Real Cost. US Department of Health and Human Services. Web. 6 Oct. 2015.