Sillah 1

Anna Sillah
Professor Deadrick
English 102
23 March 2016

Visual Argument
An effective advertisement is one that is able to draw attention to viewers, create a simple
message through the details, and be distinctive. Advertising is a way for the author to
communicate their ideas, persuade, and inform viewers. The distinctiveness of the advertisement
makes it effective because it should be able to capture one's eye and leave a memory. The
simpler the message the more successful the advertisement will be. Visual advertisements with
long messages are tougher to recall, so it is best to use short, catchy phrases. My advertisement is
effective because it goes straight to the point of the effects of smoking cigarettes. The message
the author is trying to get through is clear and has a distinctive look that is easy to remember. It
is also a visual argument, considering the purpose is to express the author's point of view through
a visual aspect. The author Kelly Ashcraft is using this image as her way of communicating her
opinion on smoking. Its visible, Ashcraft is against smoking without the need to write it out, the
advertisement speaks for itself as it should.
My chosen advertisement is a photo of a male teen with a cigarette in his mouth, the
smoke from the cigarette produces an image of a gun pointing at his head. The image is black
and white, and the males face is very dull. In the right corner, it says kill a cigarette and save a
life. Yours. This anti-smoking advertisement by Kelly Ashcraft is a subtle yet impactful
message. It targets the large majority of teens that smoke and do not smoke. The purpose of the
ad is to bring awareness to the consequence of smoking and hopefully inspire those who smoke

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to stop. The quote kill a cigarette and save a life. Yours is important because an advertisement
with a small message or quote helps support the claim by summing up what the message is really
trying to express. This message helps explain the gun, it seems as though it is pointing towards
the character but in reality, the purpose of the gun is to kill the cigarette.
Advertisements are visual arguments because it is images that are communicating a
message. This advertisement uses pathos to make the viewers more interested. Emotion is a
powerful appeal used, from the facial expression of the man in the picture. His face is very dull
like, and the background is overly dim. This sends a cheerless message that goes with the theme
of the seriousness of smoking. Once a person starts smoking it can be difficult to stop, I think the
dark background ties into the dark path one will encounter once they start smoking. The small
message kill a cigarette and save a life. Yours brings attention to the negative effects smoking
can have on a person's life. It is well known that smoking kills in various ways, the gun pointing
to the head is a symbol of death caused by the smoker.
Another argumentative strategies used in this advertisement is the deductive reasoning.
The author takes the basics knowledge that smoking is harmful, and uses that as her convincing
tool. The theory in this ad is that smoking will eventually led to death. Smoking can cause death
in many different ways the author used a more narrow aspect and summed it all up to jut death.
Visual arguments also contain 3 elements claim, reason, and evidence to be effective. In
my advertisement the authors claim is that smoking cigarettes will eventually lead to death.
Since smoking is a choice, it is also like putting a gun to your own head. The evidence I found in
this advertisement was the smoke drawn from the cigarette into a gun. The reasoning behind the
quote is to use the imaginary gun and kill the habit of smoking before smoking kills you. The
author could have just had the character smoking with the message that says smoking kills, but

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that would take away from the originality of the image. An opposing view might say
advertisement is not a visual argument because advertisements are more for promoting things
than arguing. Visual argument is about supporting a claim, and conveying a message through the
visual. An advertisement is the same thing, it is a form of art with a purpose to deliver
information. Also, advertising does not have to represent a product or a service, it has more
effectiveness than to sell a product.
General speaking, visual advertisements are adequate to the audience. They are
persuasive tools that come in many different forms. I think visual arguments can be more
effective than written arguments because it is easier to remember an image if it is unique. It is a
form of a visual argument because it is the idea the author is trying to get across. This
advertisement formed a positive effect on the target population which is teens. This
advertisement can be influential for those who smoke and those who do not. The message in the
image kill a cigaret and save a life can be beneficial to people who know others that smoke to
step in and help them quit. I think the ad can be improved a bit by adding some detail to the
characters face. If the picture had some color it could show the effect smoking has like bags
under the eyes, thinner hair, or scarring on the face. This would make the image stand out more
and draw more attention because everything will not be blended together. The advertisement
used both pathos and logos to promote anti-smoking.

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Works Cited
Ashcraft, Kelly. "Smoking Is Suicide- Gun." Flickr. Yahoo!, 23 Dec. 2007. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.

"Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, 01 Oct. 2015. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.

Stolley, Karl, Mark Pepper, and Allen Brizee. "Welcome to the Purdue OWL." Purdue OWL. The
OWL at Purdue, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.