FD2

Lora Cheng
October 19, 2009
ENG 215
FD2

Advertisements Are for Good Purpose

There are advertisements everywhere but what you don’t know is if it is meaningful or not. Certain times we see advertisements as a craver and distraction such as when you are at the movie theater you see advertisements on buying popcorn. On televisions you see commercials of guys drinking Coors light, when the ice turns blue means it is cold and refreshing to you or maybe you see the tag cologne commercial that says the cologne will attract girls to you. Some advertisements may give negative impact or send out the wrong impression to you. [THESIS]By far, there are commercials that send out positive messages and they may even affect your daily lifestyle. [THESIS]

When you are out on a normal day like every other day you pass by smokers and they don’t know that smoking affects not just them but also affects you, the person breathing in that same air. There are commercials for anti-tobacco showing that second hand smoking causes the air to be unhealthy for others and may lead to death. In one of the youtube video they showed that a lady smoking tobacco at a party was an invisible killer to others because eighty five percent of the time they cannot see the pollution in the air they breathe in. They show that you need to be considerate to the people around you such as kids, men, women, elders, and people with medical problems. In another youtube video, they have a very catchy tune showing a version of the Brady Bunch where the mother of 3 girls is a smoker and the youngest has asthma while a father of 3 boys who is also a smoker caused one of the sons to have early heart problems because of second hand smoking. When the 2 single parents suddenly joined together to become a family the children become surrounded in a house of smoking parents that causes them to be in a second hand smoking environment and they eventually deal with greater health problems. This video in a way had a fallacy of hasty generalization because they didn’t give much evidence on it. Studies have shown second hand smoking kills the other person more than the smoker. There are commercials that show facts to smokers letting them know how long they will live if they smoke and how long the other person will live from their second hand smoking.

Smokers alone have to deal with their own health problems. In this youtube video, the husband had a real life sad story about his wife who smoked until she found out she had cancer and she smoked even more after that. He talked about the pain he had to go through seeing his wife smoke more and more even when she was diagnosed with cancer. The husband Rick Stoddard also has a website telling the story of his wife. He also shares with people the pain he goes through losing his wife. Ideally, smoking affects you and the people that truly love and care about you because when you suffer through smoking you significant other is hurt seeing you in pain.

These commercials make it more believing to me because I experienced it myself. I have dealt with smokers in public and I personally can’t stand the smell because once I smell it I start coughing. Although I have noticed that there are lots different smells of tobacco because the ones that are strong I tend to cough harder and the ones that aren’t so strong my coughs are minor. From my coughing I experience how it affects my health and my breathing.

There are many commercials that advise smokers to quit smoking. In a real life story like Rick Stoddard will have impact others because when they hear about his wife and the pain he has to go through losing his wife will make smokers think differently. There are quit lines for smokers to call in and people there will help them try to quit smoking. Tobacco quit lines some have free patches and they are also confidential to help smokers that want to quit succeed. One of the youtube videos shows a American cancer Society Quit Line where they have professional cousleors to guide you step by step. They help you find what you can do to make your life back on tract.

As I talk about smoking, there are other drugs such as meth that has many commercials to tell you the danger in them. One of our classmates Mary Jane Maluyo said in our online discussion “There are also some ads that give awareness to drugs and alcohol. For example: an ad on crystal meth. They show scenes on what would happen if an individual tries meth just once.” I truly agree with her and this statement relates to my point on smoking commercials. When they talk about crystal meth in commercials it is really sad when they show you how dangerous the drug is and what it will do to you.

Commercials do have the negative side of it, where one of our classmates Jocelyn Contrades stated in our online discussion “Materialism is just one of the negative effects of ads on our lives. In contrary to its promise of making our life better and more comfortable, it somehow misleads us to unhealthy choices and behavior. More people are taking diet pills instead of sweating it out and improving eating habit.” I totally agree with her because even though smoking commercials send positive messages there are commercials on weight loss by taking pills that doesn’t help your health but it makes you become materialistic to want to look slim and want to be like the model on TV.

In conclusion, there are ads that not only send out negative messages but they send out positive messages to people and help change their lives or make it better. With smoking it’s a really big deal to people because it’s happening everyday around us with people we know like our friends, family, relatives, and coworkers but we have to let people know. The commercials are trying to help smokers and non smokers. Letting us know the true facts makes the world a better place for everyone around us. Lots of the commercials on television these days show us how to stay healthy and keep away from drugs. Everyone won’t know all of these until they actually see it on television and experience the lost of someone or the true ugliness of what drugs can do to you. Even though they have commercials that send out the wrong message on your lifestyle it may help you feel better.


Work Cited

“American Cancer Society Quit Line”. 15 November 2006. Online video clip. Youtube. 9 October 2009 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNMvidCVdYU]

Contrades, Jocelyn. “Ads Promote Materialism.” Online posting. 26 September 2009. Laulima Discussion. 19 October 2009 [https://laulima.hawaii.edu].

Maluyo, Mary Jane. “Ads Has Benefits.” Online posting. 26 September 2009. Laulima Discussion. 19 October 2009 [https://laulima.hawaii.edu].

“Secondhand Smoke: The Invisible Killer”.25 June 2007. Online video clip. Youtube. 9 October 2009 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtdhpaQw5t8&feature=related]

Stoddard, Rick. “Rick’s Journal”. Anti-Smoking and Anti-Tobacco Speaker. 9 October 2009 [http://www.rickstoddard.com/journal/journal/journalListing.php]

Tozzi, Jim. “Truth: Second Hand Smoke”.11 July 2007. Online video clip. Youtube. 9 October 2009. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE7B6Z6-rls]


Log of Completed Activities
_X_ Sep. 22t- Intro to Paper #2. Read the Guidelines for Paper #2. (Confirmation reply required.)
_X_ Sep. 25F- Complete readings for paper #2. (Confirmation reply required.)
_X_ Oct. 1T- Laulima Discussion: Ad Pros and Cons
_X_ Oct. 7W- Laulima Discussion: Logical Fallacies Exercise
_X_ Oct. 12M – RD2 due [50 pts] Review the guidelines. (Confirmation reply required.)
_X_ Oct. 15T- RD2 evaluations due [50 pts] Review the guidelines. (Confirmation reply required.)
_X_ Oct. 19M- FD2 due [125 pts] Review the guidelines. (Confirmation reply required.)