Brazilian Anti-tobacco Propaganda

This advertisement is one that depicts a car upside-down, clearly involved in a crash. The front of the vehicle is smoldering with ashes all around it, an image very similar to a cigarette butt. The caption to the right reads, “Do you know how much you really spend on cigarettes?” It was created for a Brazilian company called Tabaconomia, a creator of anti-tobacco propaganda. The creative director for the project was Flavio Waiteman, a prolific advertisement creator in Brazil who has had his works published in numerous magazines. Smokers often buy cigarettes without realizing the true price that they pay. They spend a few dollars on each pack with few immediate consequences. This advertisement attempts to show a different perspective. A comparison is made between the long term deaths caused by smoking and the immediate effects of a car crash. The message is given to an audience of smokers that it doesn’t matter how long cigarettes take to kill you, the result is still the same. It is also interesting that a car metaphor is used because often times there is more than one person harmed in car crashes. This is an appeal to pathos in saying that everyone around the smoker, including his or her family, is affected by secondhand smoke. I believe this is what makes the advertisement most effective. Smokers know they put their lives in danger; it’s often written right on the front of the packs that they purchase. The comparison of a car crash challenges the common conception that they are only harming themselves, and causes the onlooker to think hard about the effects of their actions by tapping into a violent and dangerous cultural memory of car crashes.