Original Ad

Initially, this 1970 Silva Thins advertisement is extremely offensive because of the slogan “Cigarettes are like women. The best ones are thin and rich. ”. Featuring a tall and slim female model and  a well-dressed man smoking a cigarette  promotes both smoking and the objectification of women. “The best ones are thin and rich.” This line is a crude and blatant way for the company to state that only thin women are desirable, just like thin cigarettes are the most desirable on the market. It also encourages women to smoke in order to become this ideal human and attract handsome men. When consumers see this advertisement, they see a masculine man who has the attention of a beautiful woman and vice versa. If you look online, it shows that companies in seventies made ads targeting men’s masculinity and sexualizing or objectifying women. They emphasized and tapped into their consumer’s need to be like the people in the photo, to fit in and feel manly or lose the weight and be thin like the models. The offensive slogan aside, it also fails to mention that smoking has negative side effects and is dangerous to your health. This makes it easier for the consumers to prioritize their desires of becoming this ideal, socially accepted individual instead of taking a moment to think about the repercussions of what smoking could do to their overall health.  

 

Jammed Ad

In this edited version of the Silva Thins ad, I decided to place emphasis on the fact that smoking will not make you more attractive, as opposed to the original ad which supported the idea that it would make the smoker more attractive to others. The Silva Thins company romanticized their cigarettes as well as smoking their cigarettes, and I thought it was quite appalling that they did so. I wrote ‘not’ in capital letters to really get my point across. I also edited the line “Cigarettes are like women.” to “Cigarettes are NOT like women.” I don’t believe that women should be associated with something that is associated with cancer as well as contains millions of chemicals and toxins. The original ad also compared women to being thin and rich like the cigarette, suggesting that the ideal body type women should be is ‘thin’. The emphasis I placed on the word ‘not’ again, is to reiterate that there is no image someone should be conforming to in order to feel accepted in society. Through this edited advertisement, I wanted to invoke in people a sense of acceptance, whether you are a smoker or non-smoker, doing one or the other will not change anything about you. The Silva Thins ad shouldn’t make someone feel more attractive or less attractive, and it certainly should not make people want to change their body image.