WARNING: Falling Cigarette May Kill You

Talking about advertisements in class, it seems that everyone is trying to trick you into buying something, saying that it will make your life better in some way or another. I googled "advertisements" to look for an idea for my blog this week, and came across this:

This was at the Vancouver Art Gallery during National Non-Smoking Week. The red sign on the car reads as follow: Death from car accidents: 370, Death from smoking-related causes: 6,027, Quit now before it kills you. This reminds me a little bit of Everything's an Argument, but it made me realize the other side of advertising. This is set up not to get you to buy a pack of cigarettes or a car, but the opposite. Advertisements for the most part are to get the consumer to buy a product, but in this case, it was used for the benefit of the consumer. This shows the relationship of all-too-common deaths. A car related death is one that is many times hard to avoid; death by cigarette is easy to avoid. Here, the advertisement's plan was to get their message across, and it's a nice break to see a message that isn't about consumption. Listening to advertisements can sometimes seem almost like it has a subliminal message, and in this case, the message is at least a good one. Advertisements have a point, and getting that point across is what matters, and at least sometimes it is being used for some good.