TOBACCO MARKETING AIMS: VENI, VIDI, VICI

Transcription

1 Duan 1 TOBACCO MARKETING AIMS: VENI, VIDI, VICI (I came, I saw, I conquered) An Investigative Account by Georgia Duan

2 Duan 2 Georgia Duan Dr. Christine Alfano PWR 1H-3: Visual Rhetoric and Strategies of Persuasion 4 December 2003 Tobacco Marketing Aims: Veni, Vidi, Vici If a cigarette brand can develop the image of being liked by many, particularly if the images add to the self-image the Non-Achiever [imitator] would like to have cosmopolitan, macho, etc. the Non-Achiever [imitator] will respond favorably The approach must be in keeping with his [or her] fantasy. R. M. Manko Associates, Philip Morris Philip Morris logo boldly declares Veni, Vidi, Vici I came, I saw, I conquered. Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, director of the Hispanic/Latino Tobacco Education Network Leafing through magazines such as Seventeen, People, and Vogue, I find it hard not to come across a cigarette ad. These ads, however, are not unlike others for clothing, makeup, or hair in that they all feature the bright, alluring faces of women garbed in glamorous, flowing dresses with hair blown fashionably askew by high-powered fans. Such women serve as role models for teenage girls who suffer from the insecurities of social intercourse and their own internal changes, for they exude and offer behaviors that the girls lack. They not only act as archetypes of beauty and confidence, but also set a standard for such traits, which most women feel compelled to meet. A tobacco company attempting to successfully market cigarettes to women first distresses women and then provide a solution often a counterfeit and misleading solution that claims to be a panacea for the consumer s anxieties. The company is deceptive in its ploy to boost trade, for in addition to falsely advertising the constructive potential of cigarettes, it neglects to illustrate the long-term consequences of smoking. Tobacco companies such as Virginia Slims distress vulnerable women and teenage girls into believing the alluring pulls of glamour and inner strength presented in the visual rhetoric of their advertisements, through which the companies are able to perpetuate the ideal, socially acceptable woman.

3 Duan 3 The marketable image of a woman as a physically appealing has been a well-used method of advertising to females, a method which Virginia Slims accurately or not capitalizes upon in advertisements that spread its message of self-empowerment through smoking. The woman in Fig. 1.1 looks directly at the camera, the viewer, as if she is a narrator who tells the viewer to buy Virginia Slims. The predominant feature of the ad is the woman s body, for her clothing is mainly cut out of the photograph. Her bare legs and arms suggest to women viewers that a socially acceptable woman is one who wears skin-baring clothing, and wears stilettos. The model says or rather, has the words put into her mouth by Philip Morris: Until you try walking in 3 inch heels you can t smoke one of ours. Aimed directly to exclude the male population (or at least the ones who do not wear 3 inch heels), the ad furtively punches at insecure women who feel uncomfortable fitting in with social stereotypes of women with stilettos and well-toned bodies. As the slogan states, It s a woman thing, smoking Virginia Slims and wearing stilettos. The ad also defines woman with the ultimatum: until you conform, you can t smoke one of ours, you can t be in the group of socially acceptable women. Fig. 1.1 External Woman. Source: Virg12.17b.html. Fig. 1.2 Women in Relationships. Source: pollay_ads/virg12.01a.html. Fig. 1.3 Woman as Object. Source: irg16.12.html.

4 Duan 4 Virginia Slims further pressures conformity in ads such as Fig. 1.2, in which the woman featured, like the one in Fig. 1.1, says to the viewer: You re officially our boyfriend when we actually make space for you in our closet. Although there is no cigarette in Fig. 1.2, the model s finger to her lips simulates the appearance of smoking a cigarette. Though the text suggests that the woman is mak[ing] space in her closet for her boyfriend, the placement of her inside of the closet with a cigarette-like finger in her mouth proposes the image of the closet smoker. Through this, Virginia Slims inadvertently betrays an irony in its rhetoric: while on the surface, the model excitedly invites the viewer into her secret rite of mak[ing] space, the shushing index finger also functions as a substitute cigarette that makes her, as a closet smoker, much less appealing to the audience. In the closet, she make[s] space for her boyfriend; however, her background is of men s dress shirts, which insinuates a male presence behind the entire advertisement. The ad s emphasis on men, like the boyfriend and the dress shirts, exposes Slims perpetuation of the female gender stereotype that women should not only be in relationships, but also be homosexually-oriented. While the previous two ads show the ideal woman both internally, or sexually, and physically, the third woman of Fig. 1.3 serves as an object, which can be manipulated. She is less of a narrator and more of an icon for Superslims, as her face is indistinct and the focus is on her passionate and longing pose. Furthermore, the picture has been elongated to stress not only the concept of Superslims, but also the woman s body. In altering the photograph, Philip Morris manipulates its model, visually, as it does the viewers by dictating the ideal image of a woman. The Slims woman is thin and tall to an extent which not even the hired model could attain without the help of a computer image program. The three women in Fig are a mere sample of the Slims models used by Philip Morris to attract the attentions of and harass the insecurities

5 Duan 5 of other women, which Baezconde-Garbanati criticizes as Morris Vini, Vidi, Vici mentality: a view of women consumers as statistics and revenue. Because of this callous businesslike manner, advertisers endeavor to draw in consumers whether or not the ads are truthful. The business powerhouse increases sales by advertising to the customers; thus, Morris ads target women with images of more beautiful, more confident women than themselves. Such ads are persuasive visual arguments that fail to address the truths of the long-term effects of smoking and the reality that smoking cannot generate self-confidence. Anti-smoking advertisements undermine the false promises of smoking ads by illustrating the ugly consequences that smokers endure to deter insecure females from idealizing the feigned Virginia Slims image of woman. Fig. 2.1 undercuts the stereotype of women with aims to present the real, disgusting truth about cigarettes. Such an image is presented in Fig. 2.2, in which the model uses an unlit cigarette, the embers of which were digitally inserted in post-editing. The model is not actually smoking in the ad, which shows just how erroneous cigarette ads are in their claims and promises to the consumer. The image of the model serves as Morris central argument: if you smoke a Virginia Slims cigarette, then you will be just as confident, beautiful, and sophisticated as the model smoking the cigarette. There is, however, nothing real about this argument, for the model is not smoking a Virginia Slims cigarette, and therefore none of her confidence, beauty, or sophistication derives from her smoking the cigarette. Fig. 2.1 Anti-Smoking Ads. Source: nch/archives/antismoking6.asp Fig. 2.2 Virginia Slims. Source: kim120 The creator of the parody ad adds smoke to the cigarette (made obvious because it is not blowing in the same direction as the model s hair), which reveals the smoker s physical unattractiveness. The anti-smoking ad has a harsher, more realistic texture in contrast with the airbrushed

6 Duan 6 magazine ad, which undermines the image of the Slims woman as beautiful and glamorous. The viewer does not initially see the model s face, for it is obscured by the smoke coming from her trachea, a strong use of pathos: the advertisement exhibits an extremely off-putting image, making the model look drastically more revolting than attractive. The slogan for this ad, Find your voice box, derides the fact that the smoker s voice box is a hole in which she inserts cigarettes; she did not find [her] voice through Virginia Slims, but rather has to find [her] voice box because of Virginia Slims every time she takes a drag of a cigarette that she has become addicted to. In the mind frame of tobacco companies, a conquest Philip Morris vici would be a new life-long consumer, which in due course will result in disease or death. Fig. 2.1 Fig. 2.1 is a realization of what Virginia Slims will leave the consumer with: a tracheotomy and social exile. In this, the parody undercuts Slims stereotype of women internally, for though they appear to be healthy and robust, they ultimately suffer from smoking-induced health problems. Corporate cigarette companies like Philip Morris depict idealized women in marketing ads, aiming at the less secure and socially adept female population as a bully targets the weakest of students. Such cigarette campaigns influence pubescent, teenage girls through youth magazines and seek out insecure adult women battling issues of physical beauty and selfconfidence. Virginia Slims ads such as Fig and Fig. 2.2 feature fictitious promises of beauty, strength, and identity through contrived pictorial and textual rhetoric, rhetoric that is undermined by anti-smoking advertisements like Fig. 2.1 that reveal the harsh effects of smoking such promising cigarettes. As a cigarette conglomerate, Philip Morris came into American society, saw the vulnerabilities of young women, and conquered women through the reinvention

7 Duan 7 of woman. The comparison of Philip Morris to Caesar as conqueror of consumers is a moral issue to be grappled with: though the rhetoric is persuasive, is it rightfully so?

8 Duan 8 Works Cited Lung Cancer and Cigarette Smoking Web Page. Ed. Frederic W. Grannis, Jr. Jan Web. 10 Oct Young Smokers Qualitative Research Report. R. M. Manko Associates. Feb Web. 6 Oct California s Ethnic Leaders Blast Philip Morris for Targeting their Communities. Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum. 9 Nov Web. 6 Oct