Multiliteracies in ELA Classrooms

Although I’m home sick, I still wanted to share what I had prepared for class today.  One of my favourite local magazines is Adbusters.  The magazine takes a radical and critical approach to consumerism and often comes up with spoof ads as a social commentary about the impact advertising can have on society.  One such spoof ad I came across on the weekend was in response to those famous Joe Camel ads from the 70s-80s.

Here’s the original ad:

And here’s the spoof ad:

This spoof ad is particularly powerful because it mocks the original Joe Camel ads which depicted a cool character sporting a cigarette, insinuating that by smoking, he upped his cool factor.  Instead, the spoof ad paints the same character in a pathetic light, now hooked to an IV and receiving chemo for his lifestyle choices.  The play on words, changing from Joe Camel to Joe Chemo is also an effective method at getting the point across:  Smoking isn’t cool anymore.  Also interesting is the edited version of the small Surgeon General’s warning.  What once read as a descriptor of the primary conditions caused by smoking is now replaced with detrimental effects to characters who smoke.  Spoof ads, although based in humour, are compelling nonetheless, and cater to a wittier generation.

I don’t know how prevalent smoking is amongst teens today, since there have been fairly aggressive PSAs about the dangers of smoking, but I recall that when I was in junior high, the kids who smoked were “the cool kids”.  One has to wonder if that attitude is a reinforcement of the message these ads hoped to push.  My general impression is that society is becoming less excepting of smoking and that’s reflective in the current BC laws restricting smoking to very few areas, so it’d be interesting to see how cigarette advertisements change as society’s view changes.

– Kiran Aujlay