Death / Destruction: Propaganda

J Robison

Propaganda, in its various forms, has become ubiquitous in modern society. From politics to Prada handbags, people are being persuaded to purchase a specific brand of cereal, or support a particular candidate for the local school board. While the art of tailoring a specific message to a target audience has taken place for millennia,  the advent of message platforms like television and print media has caused propaganda to spread across our landscape like a tsunami of maple syrup - sweet-tasting, but difficult to remove.

There are exceptions to this.  Some propaganda made available for public consumption is almost cheerfully ignored, in spite of the message being shared. 

Toe Tag

Why are messages like this one received with less cheer than others? Well, the message is negative, but not the same 'negative' an audience readily jumps out and supports. Society is surrounded by negative messaging. Political ads tell us how awful a candidate is, or how one laundry detergent is 50% more effective than the leading brand. Consumers and citizens respond to those ads. Why would smokers be less inclined to support anti-smoking ads when there is so much evidence available in the ether proving just how harmful smoking is?

There are several reasons. First and foremost, cigarette smokers are addicted to cigarettes. Addicts, by definition, won't be willing targets for a propaganda campaign aimed at ceasing their addiction. Means other than advertisements are usually required to help break their addictions. It then stands to reason that 1) there are additional target audiences, or that 2) anti-smoking propaganda campaigns are using other factors in their efforts to persuade target audiences. In fact, both examples seem applicable here.

Smoke Rings

Where general persuasion is ineffective, guilt becomes a powerful alternative. Who could resist the inevitable tugging of heart strings when looking at an image of a small child blowing smoke rings with a soap bubble blower? Just imagine the possible quotes: 'Think of the children.' 'Look at what your child is breathing when you smoke.' Surely a target audience will be receptive to THIS message.

Not so much.

Posters don't seem to be a primary causal factor in smoking cessation because, frankly, they are not disseminated all over the place like regular advertisements. Further, warning labels on cigarette packs are text-only and fairly bland. Any advertising executive would tell us that information and image placement is key when planning a campaign, and that images are usually more effective than text alone.

The Most Frightening Cigarette Packages Ever

Australia seems to have taken propaganda advice to heart. There is an effort by the  Australian government to require cigarette packages to be plain, except for charming images on the packets showing the detrimental effects of smoking on the human body. The World Health Organization has already conducted studies on the effectiveness of images on cigarette packets, and found that there is a correlation between image placement and smoking cessation. While such images have been used in Europe and throughout the world to decent effect, none have ever been this graphic or in-your-face.

Perhaps American health authorities can bypass the tobacco lobby and put images like these on cigarette packets here. While they may or may not help the author and others quit smoking, they might just scare off potential smokers and force them to engage in another bad habit instead.