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Vaping; The Ugly Truth

Sam Swenson

Arizona State University

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Vaping; The Ugly Truth

Vaping has been on the rise in terms of popularity in recent years. With more and more

ads and campaigns coming out siding against smoking and exposing all the health risks that

come with it, people are looking for healthier and safer

alternatives to smoking. In comes vaping. Vaping is

seen as this harmless alternative to smoking that's

simple, fun and safe. It is soaring in popularity,

especially among the youth. Ads such as this one for

The Department of Health of the Philippines encourage

us to say no to vaping; using visual effects and factual

evidence, they tackle and try to disprove the common

misconception among the general population that

vaping is safe and cool.

This text was created by a group of graphic

designers from California. They created this anti vape ad campaign proposal for the Department

of Health in the Philippines as a final requirement for their advertising practice 4 course. Along

with the image that I will be analysing, they made 5 other images for the campaign as well. They

also created some possible merchandise for the campaign.

This ad is a rectangular shape positioned in a vertical manner with a solid black

background. The main image of this ad is a picture of a male blowing clouds from a vape, out of

his nose. This picture takes up about 2/3s of the available space of the ad and is located in the

center of the ad. The male looks to be in his late teens or in his very early twenties. He seems to

be sitting on a stool with his shoulders slumped forward and his hands clasped in his lap. His
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overall demeanor seems to be defeated and lethargic. He is wearing a black t shirt and has a

watch on his left hand and some bracelets on his right hand. It looks like he is of asian or oceanic

decent and of middle to upper class.

The picture of him and the ad in whole is in black and white. On the top of the ad, above

the male’s head, in relatively large font is the phrase “it makes me look cool”. The whole phrase

is in white text but the

world “cool” is in red.

There is some smaller

text in white on the left

hand side comparing the dangers of early on smoking to early on vaping. In the bottom right

corner, there is the campaign’s hashtag and the various social media platforms that the campaign

can be reached on. In the bottom left corner is the logo for the Department of Health in the

Philippines and the campaign’s logo.

With the recent rise of vaping this ad is coming out at a perfect time, exhibiting its use of

the rhetorical device Kairos. It is taking advantage of this perfect time to gain attention and

having its message reach as many people as possible. On top of this coming out at the perfect

time, it is targeting the right audience by using a teen as the main image in this ad and attacking

the stigma that vaping is “cool”. Like I said before vaping is especially popular among the youth.

A lot of kids see this as a way to make themselves look cool and fit in, and we all know that

social acceptance is extremely important for teens and young adults. This ad is taking advantage

of this perfect timing and combining that with targeting the right audience to create this perfect

storm of Kairos.
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One thing this ad does well to get its message across is that it set up a very serious and

dramatic tone. It’s set up to evoke a negative emotional response to the readers. By doing this,

this ad is using the rhetorical device pathos. One of the elements in this ad that helps set this up

is the black and white theme. This helps give the impression that it is a very grim matter. It lets

the reader know that this is important. Another element of the ad that I noticed is that the word

“cool” is in red. This is significant because the color red is thought of as a menacing and

dangerous color, but it’s on the world cool. This creates an oxymoron, it makes the reader second

guess the true meaning of cool in this context. It makes the

reader think that vaping maybe isn’t so cool after all. Also,

the main image of this ad is the kid sitting on a stool,

blowing clouds of vape out of his nose. But the way he is

sitting is significant. He has very poor posture with his back

arched and shoulders slumped forward. He has a very

defeated and depressed look on his face as he stares

aimlessly at his feet. This does not give off a very good

vibe at all. In fact it makes this scene even more grim and

depressing, adding to the negative emotional response that

this ad projects.

Along with the visual effects of the ad that evoke a

certain response from its readers, they put some factual evidence on the left hand side that link

the effects of early on vaping to early on smoking. This is one of my favorite parts of the ad

because it gives the facts and evidence that some of the readers might need in order to fully

understand the effects of vaping. By providing these facts and evidence this ad is showing of its
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use of the rhetorical device logos.

Vaping is extremely trusted and especially among the youth. It’s seen as a harmless little

activity and one that is completely safe, it’s because of these reasons that vaping is so well

trusted. All of the elements in this ad and this ad’s use of kairos, pathos and logos come together

to damage the trust that these readers have in vaping. In other ads where they might use the

rhetorical device ethos by trying to convince you that their product is better than others and make

you trust them more, this ad is using ethos to make its readers distrust vaping. The black and

white theme, poor posture of the teen in the main image, creation of oxymoron by using the color

red, factual evidence on the side and this ad’s timing all combine to make its audience lose its

trust in vaping.

With all things considered this ad’s main goal was to tackle the misconception that

vaping is a safer alternative to smoking and discourage people from vaping in the future. I would

say that this ad did a very solid job of this task and achieved its goal.

Right off the bat this ad sets a very serious and dramatic tone. This lets the reader know

that this is a very serious matter. It accomplishes this tone because of the black and white theme

of the ad as well as the posture and demeanor of the male in the middle of the ad. Also the red

text on the words “cool” gives the impression of danger. This confuses the reader and make them

second guess whether vaping is really cool after all. These visual cues all work together to evoke

a negative response from the reader.

The text on the left hand side provides factual evidence about the consequences of

smoking. This works to change people’s misconception even more because these are facts rather

than opinions, they are irrefutable.

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People trust vaping. They see it as a safe and harmless alternative to smoking. In this ad,

the facts and the visual cues all come together to damage this trust that people have in smoking.

As they trust vaping less they are then less likely to vape themselves.

By analysing this text I have been able to figure out what the goal of the ad was and how

it achieved its goal. I was able to break down all of the components of the ad and see what they

each individually do for the ad and how they all come together and achieve the ad’s goal. Also I

was able to work on my analysing and critical thinking skills which will be very useful in the

future.