Anti Smoking Ethos Analysis
Discovering the Truth:
The Operation of Ethos in Anti-Smoking
Advertising
REBECCA FELDMANN
This rhetorical analysis appeared in a journal called Young Scholars in Writing, which publishes articles on rhetoric and composition written by college undergraduates. Feldmann shows how the popular and effective Truth campaign appeals to teens by building ethos and challenging the ethos of tobacco companies.
As you read, look at how she carefully defines concepts up front, which she can then use later in the rhetorical analysis.
In 1998, the Florida Tobacco Pilot Pro- gram (FTPP) launched a $25 million Truth advertising campaign to alert teenagers to the dangers of smoking and to reduce teen tobacco use. The Truth campaign began
when …show more content…
studies conducted by the FTPP and other tobacco control efforts determined that smoking is equated with rebellion and teen self-realization and that the theme of “indus- try manipulation” held broad appeal among young people (Zucker, Hopkins, Sly, Urich,
Mendza-Kershaw, and Solan). This cam- paign portrayed the tobacco industry as ma- nipulative and smoking itself as an uncool habit, and it tapped into teens’ need to rebel by depicting tobacco use as an addictive habit marketed by an adult establishment (Zucker, Hopkins, Sly, Urich, Mendza-
Kershaw, and Solan 2). The campaign has since spread nation-wide, sponsoring advertisements in maga- zines, television, and radio. It has its own website with a link to a photo blog, a “Find
Facts” page where visitors can learn facts that the campaign has gathered about tobacco companies and the effects of smoking 1 and a “Whatta You Think” section where teens can voice their opinions on issues relating to the tobacco industry and smoking.
The reach of these ads has extended across the nation and impacted a number of teens. Between the inception of Florida’s Truth campaign and 2000, results within the state included “a 92 percent brand awareness rate among teens, a 15 percent rise in teens who agree with key attitudinal statements about smoking, a 19.4 percent decline in smoking among middle school students, and and a 8.0 percent decline among high school stu- dents” (Zucker, Hopkins, Sly, Urich, Mendza-Kershaw, and Solan 1). More recently, among
12 to 17-year olds in the U.S., 75% can accurately describe one or more of the Truth ads, 90% reported that the ad they saw was convincing, and 85% responded that the ad gave them good reasons not to smoke (Citi-zen’s Commission). Furthermore, the Com mission’s website states, “Monitoring the Future, one of the nation’s most comprehen- sive substance abuse surveys, reported dramatic declines in smoking rates among 8th,
10th, and 12th graders, citing Truth as a factor in this public health success story” (Citizen’s
Commission). From such statistics, it is easy to con- clude that these ads have been effective in drawing teenage audiences, but it is not as easy to conclude how. In this article, by turning to Aristotle, I examine these advertise- ments as contemporary examples of rhetoric to understand how they function. In doing so,
I illustrate that the Truth campaign alerts us to the efficacy of rhetoric at its best—rhetoric that alerts us to the truth of a matter rather than manipulates us into being falsely persuaded by appealing images and illustrious word-play. In a culture where the word “rhetoric” is often associated with scheming political speech or gimmicky advertising, the rheto- ric of the Truth campaign aims at something different. Rather than reverting to “that pow- erful instrument of error and deceit” (827) that John Locke refers to in his An Essay Con- cerning Human Understanding, the rhetoric of Truth’s advertising more closely ap- proaches Plato’s definition of rhetoric as “an art which leads the soul by means of words”
(Phaedrus 157).
The use of ethos
Aristotle first discusses ethos in Book 1 of his work, On Rhetoric. Ethos, or persuasion by character, is built “whenever the speech is spoken in such a way as to make the speaker worthy of credence” (38). The rhetor who purports to have the audience’s best interest at heart and who successfully conveys this in her speech will persuade by building charac- ter (ethos) in the speech rather than by relying on a preconceived notion the audience may have of the rhetor. This is the most effective means of swaying an audience; the ethical appeal is “the controlling factor in persuasion” (38), as Aristotle puts it.
An example of the attempt to persuade by invoking ethos in the Truth ads is appar- ent in a series of magazine advertisements, which tell teens, “Their brand is lies. Our brand is truth.” This tagline is the most blatant appearance of such character building as it communicates that Truth ads are serving the purpose of truth rather than manipula- tion. As Aristotle points out, “The true and the just are by nature stronger than their op- posites” (34), and the Truth ads build character by upholding this precept.
The visual statements in these ads further build ethos. The dual presence of smok- ing and body-bags in several of Truth’s ads illustrate this point, for the message is sim- ple: smoking kills. This message is present in many of Truth’s advertisements, including the Marlboro-like ad discussed in more detail below. These visual statements commu- nicate the campaign’s ethos by pointing out the stark contrast between their advertising and that of tobacco companies. Truth’s ads cleverly call attention to the deceitful tactics of tobacco ads that promote a habit that can kill and that target an audience (those be- tween 12 and 17) which cannot legally engage in that habit.
Practical wisdom [phronïsis].
The ethos of any speech must contain three components: “practical wisdom [phronïsis],” or good sense/knowledge of the subject the speaker is addressing; “virtue [aretï],” or good moral character, which also has ties to the desire to communicate “the true and the just”
(Aristotle 34); and “good will [eunoia],” or having the good of the audience as the speak- er’s (at least perceived) main interest (121). Aristotle further states that a rhetor may become less persuasive if he fails to demonstrate any one of these parts, but “a person seeming to have all these qualities is necessarily persuasive to the hearers” (121).
In the Truth ads, practical wisdom involves knowledge of the strategies and ma- nipulation used in cigarette advertising and knowledge of the audience (teens between
12–18). Truth communicates practical wisdom relative to Big Tobacco by containing on its website a “find facts” page that enables teens to broaden their knowledge by scrolling through various statements related to tobacco advertising and health risks associated with smoking. It also communicates practical wisdom more subtly by acknowledging and appealing to teens’ need for rebellion in encouraging teens to stand up to the adult establishment of Big Tobacco. Many Truth ads communicate knowledge by alluding to tobacco ads. The newer “Seek truth” advertisements, shown on television and available to view on the website, feature teens set up outside “a major tobacco company in New York” asking hard-hitting questions of the executives from a podium set up on the sidewalk. Their podium has a “Q:” sign attached to the front, and after a question is asked, the camera turns to a podium with an “A:” sign that is situated in front of the tobacco company’s building with nobody standing by it. These ads encourage teens to ask questions and rebel against what the smoking advertisements are saying. One particular ad shows a Virginia Slims poster which tells women to “Find Your Own Voice.”The young adult in front of the podium intro- duces her older friend to ask a question to the tobacco company executives. This woman, using her artificial voice box, asks, “Is this the voice you expected me to find?” The camera then flashes over to the empty “A:” podium, followed by silence. The ad ends with script stating, “Ask questions. Seek Truth.” This advertisement resonates with the audience because it shows the campaign’s knowledge of its subject and appeals to teens’ independent nature. The Virginia Slims advertisement communicates to women that smok- ing Virginia Slims will lead to independence and finding one’s voice. But the Truth ad is a stark reminder that smoking causes cancer which may attack one’s throat and lead to the need for an artificial voice box. Women will lose their physical voices rather than find fig- urative ones. To fully succeed in satisfying the “practi- cal wisdom” requirement of ethos, the Truth campaign must relate to its audience, teens.
Cornelia Pechmann, Guangzhi Zhao, Marvin E. Goldberg, and Ellen Thomas Reibling identify seven recurring themes in antismoking advertisements aimed at teens: Disease and Death, Endangers Others, Cosmetics, Smokers’ Negative Life Circumstances, Re- fusal Skills, Role Model Marketing Tactics, and Selling Disease and Death. They explain that the choice of theme in the advertisement may affect the result the rhetor obtains in persuading the teen to refrain from smoking. Pechmann, Zhao, Goldberg, and Reib- ling claim that the most effective message themes are Endangers Others, Refusal Skills
Role Model, and Smokers’ Negative Life Circumstances. The Endangers Others theme stresses “how secondhand smoke, and smoking in general, can seriously harm smokers’ family members, coworkers, and peers” and “convey[s] that smokers may encounter strong social disapproval from nonsmokers” (3).
The Refusal Skills Role Model theme op- erates by explaining why “many attractive role models view smoking as unappealing and demonstrate refusals of cigarette offers”(4). The Smokers’ Negative Life Circum- stances theme stresses that smoking is a barrier to appearing “mature, independent, savvy, attractive, and cool” (4). Many of the advertisements of the Truth campaign em- ploy the Smokers’ Negative Life Circumstances theme stresses that smoking is a barrier to appearing “mature, independent, savvy, attractive, and cool” (4). Many of the advertisements of the Truth campaign employ the Smokers’ Negative Life Circum- stances theme. These commercials revolve around a dictum encouraging teens and young people to “Ask questions” and “Seek truth.” By prompting such discourse, the
Truth advertisements communicate that, unlike the tobacco firms who encourage youth to passively accept their message, this antismoking campaign challenges them to be come “mature, independent, [and] savvy” by prodding these industries for answers and by intelligently drawing out the consequences of smoking. The Truth campaign thus …show more content…
ad- dresses one of the most successful messages in antismoking advertising aimed at youth: rather than telling teens tobacco companies are manipulating them, these ads encourage teens to ask their own questions of this industry, empowering them to be more mature and savvy in a way that tobacco industries discourage.
Good virtue [aretï]
In On Rhetoric, Aristotle says that virtue “is an ability [dynamis], as it seems, that is pro- ductive and preservative of goods, and an ability for doing good in many and great ways, actually in all ways in all things [1366b]” (79). The subdivisions of virtue are
“justice, manly courage, self-control, magnificence, magnanimity, liberality, gentle- ness, prudence, and wisdom” (79–80). “Thegreatest virtues,” he continues, “are neces- sarily those most useful to others. For that reason people most honor the just and the courageous” (80). Indeed, the “just and the courageous” are present throughout all of the Truth ads. Along with wisdom, they comprise the main subdivisions of virtue at work in this form of rhetoric.
One Truth billboard depicts an older man in a bikini holding a cigarette; the cap- tion is “No wonder tobacco executives hide behind sexy models.” This advertisement demonstrates both the “just and the courageous” by implying that tobacco
companies’ ads do not have these qualities. This bill-board communicates that tobacco execu- tives are not courageous because they need to hide. The Truth campaign points to the virtue of their counter-advertising campaign, telling their audience, “Their brand is lies.
Our brand is truth.” This statement appears as a warning, much like the Surgeon Gen eral’s warning in a cigarette advertisement, suggesting that the Truth campaign does not danger the public. Their product (so to speak) is the quest for knowledge, the de- sire to point out the lies that are perpetu- ated by advertising paid for by the tobacco industry. As James L. Kinneavy and Susan C. War- shauer point out, virtue “is established when speakers give evidence that they are sincere and trustworthy. The audience must be con- vinced that the speaker will not deceive them” (174). Truth establishes its sincerity: while never directly telling the audience to refuse cigarettes, it does encourage teens to find the facts out for themselves. Thus, Truth is like an ethical orator because it presents its audience with facts they may use to make in- formed decisions.
Kinneavy and Warshauer also discuss the relationship between arïteand the Greek word
Ariston, which means “nobility” or “aristoc- racy.” This etymological relationship points to the consideration of culture in the ethical ar- gument: “The effectiveness of an ethical ap- peal thus depends on one’s ability to gauge so- ciety’s values and to display them—indeed to affirm them—in one’s speech” (175). This ex- planation reinforces the point that considera- tion of the group to whom one is speaking is crucial to making a successful ethical argu- ment, specifically in the case of these adver- tisements for Truth. Kinneavy and Warshauer imply that in persuading the audience that she is virtuous, the rhetor must be able to con-
The Operation of Ethos in Anti-Smoking
Advertising
REBECCA FELDMANN
This rhetorical analysis appeared in a journal called Young Scholars in Writing, which publishes articles on rhetoric and composition written by college undergraduates. Feldmann shows how the popular and effective Truth campaign appeals to teens by building ethos and challenging the ethos of tobacco companies.
As you read, look at how she carefully defines concepts up front, which she can then use later in the rhetorical analysis.
In 1998, the Florida Tobacco Pilot Pro- gram (FTPP) launched a $25 million Truth advertising campaign to alert teenagers to the dangers of smoking and to reduce teen tobacco use. The Truth campaign began
when …show more content…
studies conducted by the FTPP and other tobacco control efforts determined that smoking is equated with rebellion and teen self-realization and that the theme of “indus- try manipulation” held broad appeal among young people (Zucker, Hopkins, Sly, Urich,
Mendza-Kershaw, and Solan). This cam- paign portrayed the tobacco industry as ma- nipulative and smoking itself as an uncool habit, and it tapped into teens’ need to rebel by depicting tobacco use as an addictive habit marketed by an adult establishment (Zucker, Hopkins, Sly, Urich, Mendza-
Kershaw, and Solan 2). The campaign has since spread nation-wide, sponsoring advertisements in maga- zines, television, and radio. It has its own website with a link to a photo blog, a “Find
Facts” page where visitors can learn facts that the campaign has gathered about tobacco companies and the effects of smoking 1 and a “Whatta You Think” section where teens can voice their opinions on issues relating to the tobacco industry and smoking.
The reach of these ads has extended across the nation and impacted a number of teens. Between the inception of Florida’s Truth campaign and 2000, results within the state included “a 92 percent brand awareness rate among teens, a 15 percent rise in teens who agree with key attitudinal statements about smoking, a 19.4 percent decline in smoking among middle school students, and and a 8.0 percent decline among high school stu- dents” (Zucker, Hopkins, Sly, Urich, Mendza-Kershaw, and Solan 1). More recently, among
12 to 17-year olds in the U.S., 75% can accurately describe one or more of the Truth ads, 90% reported that the ad they saw was convincing, and 85% responded that the ad gave them good reasons not to smoke (Citi-zen’s Commission). Furthermore, the Com mission’s website states, “Monitoring the Future, one of the nation’s most comprehen- sive substance abuse surveys, reported dramatic declines in smoking rates among 8th,
10th, and 12th graders, citing Truth as a factor in this public health success story” (Citizen’s
Commission). From such statistics, it is easy to con- clude that these ads have been effective in drawing teenage audiences, but it is not as easy to conclude how. In this article, by turning to Aristotle, I examine these advertise- ments as contemporary examples of rhetoric to understand how they function. In doing so,
I illustrate that the Truth campaign alerts us to the efficacy of rhetoric at its best—rhetoric that alerts us to the truth of a matter rather than manipulates us into being falsely persuaded by appealing images and illustrious word-play. In a culture where the word “rhetoric” is often associated with scheming political speech or gimmicky advertising, the rheto- ric of the Truth campaign aims at something different. Rather than reverting to “that pow- erful instrument of error and deceit” (827) that John Locke refers to in his An Essay Con- cerning Human Understanding, the rhetoric of Truth’s advertising more closely ap- proaches Plato’s definition of rhetoric as “an art which leads the soul by means of words”
(Phaedrus 157).
The use of ethos
Aristotle first discusses ethos in Book 1 of his work, On Rhetoric. Ethos, or persuasion by character, is built “whenever the speech is spoken in such a way as to make the speaker worthy of credence” (38). The rhetor who purports to have the audience’s best interest at heart and who successfully conveys this in her speech will persuade by building charac- ter (ethos) in the speech rather than by relying on a preconceived notion the audience may have of the rhetor. This is the most effective means of swaying an audience; the ethical appeal is “the controlling factor in persuasion” (38), as Aristotle puts it.
An example of the attempt to persuade by invoking ethos in the Truth ads is appar- ent in a series of magazine advertisements, which tell teens, “Their brand is lies. Our brand is truth.” This tagline is the most blatant appearance of such character building as it communicates that Truth ads are serving the purpose of truth rather than manipula- tion. As Aristotle points out, “The true and the just are by nature stronger than their op- posites” (34), and the Truth ads build character by upholding this precept.
The visual statements in these ads further build ethos. The dual presence of smok- ing and body-bags in several of Truth’s ads illustrate this point, for the message is sim- ple: smoking kills. This message is present in many of Truth’s advertisements, including the Marlboro-like ad discussed in more detail below. These visual statements commu- nicate the campaign’s ethos by pointing out the stark contrast between their advertising and that of tobacco companies. Truth’s ads cleverly call attention to the deceitful tactics of tobacco ads that promote a habit that can kill and that target an audience (those be- tween 12 and 17) which cannot legally engage in that habit.
Practical wisdom [phronïsis].
The ethos of any speech must contain three components: “practical wisdom [phronïsis],” or good sense/knowledge of the subject the speaker is addressing; “virtue [aretï],” or good moral character, which also has ties to the desire to communicate “the true and the just”
(Aristotle 34); and “good will [eunoia],” or having the good of the audience as the speak- er’s (at least perceived) main interest (121). Aristotle further states that a rhetor may become less persuasive if he fails to demonstrate any one of these parts, but “a person seeming to have all these qualities is necessarily persuasive to the hearers” (121).
In the Truth ads, practical wisdom involves knowledge of the strategies and ma- nipulation used in cigarette advertising and knowledge of the audience (teens between
12–18). Truth communicates practical wisdom relative to Big Tobacco by containing on its website a “find facts” page that enables teens to broaden their knowledge by scrolling through various statements related to tobacco advertising and health risks associated with smoking. It also communicates practical wisdom more subtly by acknowledging and appealing to teens’ need for rebellion in encouraging teens to stand up to the adult establishment of Big Tobacco. Many Truth ads communicate knowledge by alluding to tobacco ads. The newer “Seek truth” advertisements, shown on television and available to view on the website, feature teens set up outside “a major tobacco company in New York” asking hard-hitting questions of the executives from a podium set up on the sidewalk. Their podium has a “Q:” sign attached to the front, and after a question is asked, the camera turns to a podium with an “A:” sign that is situated in front of the tobacco company’s building with nobody standing by it. These ads encourage teens to ask questions and rebel against what the smoking advertisements are saying. One particular ad shows a Virginia Slims poster which tells women to “Find Your Own Voice.”The young adult in front of the podium intro- duces her older friend to ask a question to the tobacco company executives. This woman, using her artificial voice box, asks, “Is this the voice you expected me to find?” The camera then flashes over to the empty “A:” podium, followed by silence. The ad ends with script stating, “Ask questions. Seek Truth.” This advertisement resonates with the audience because it shows the campaign’s knowledge of its subject and appeals to teens’ independent nature. The Virginia Slims advertisement communicates to women that smok- ing Virginia Slims will lead to independence and finding one’s voice. But the Truth ad is a stark reminder that smoking causes cancer which may attack one’s throat and lead to the need for an artificial voice box. Women will lose their physical voices rather than find fig- urative ones. To fully succeed in satisfying the “practi- cal wisdom” requirement of ethos, the Truth campaign must relate to its audience, teens.
Cornelia Pechmann, Guangzhi Zhao, Marvin E. Goldberg, and Ellen Thomas Reibling identify seven recurring themes in antismoking advertisements aimed at teens: Disease and Death, Endangers Others, Cosmetics, Smokers’ Negative Life Circumstances, Re- fusal Skills, Role Model Marketing Tactics, and Selling Disease and Death. They explain that the choice of theme in the advertisement may affect the result the rhetor obtains in persuading the teen to refrain from smoking. Pechmann, Zhao, Goldberg, and Reib- ling claim that the most effective message themes are Endangers Others, Refusal Skills
Role Model, and Smokers’ Negative Life Circumstances. The Endangers Others theme stresses “how secondhand smoke, and smoking in general, can seriously harm smokers’ family members, coworkers, and peers” and “convey[s] that smokers may encounter strong social disapproval from nonsmokers” (3).
The Refusal Skills Role Model theme op- erates by explaining why “many attractive role models view smoking as unappealing and demonstrate refusals of cigarette offers”(4). The Smokers’ Negative Life Circum- stances theme stresses that smoking is a barrier to appearing “mature, independent, savvy, attractive, and cool” (4). Many of the advertisements of the Truth campaign em- ploy the Smokers’ Negative Life Circumstances theme stresses that smoking is a barrier to appearing “mature, independent, savvy, attractive, and cool” (4). Many of the advertisements of the Truth campaign employ the Smokers’ Negative Life Circum- stances theme. These commercials revolve around a dictum encouraging teens and young people to “Ask questions” and “Seek truth.” By prompting such discourse, the
Truth advertisements communicate that, unlike the tobacco firms who encourage youth to passively accept their message, this antismoking campaign challenges them to be come “mature, independent, [and] savvy” by prodding these industries for answers and by intelligently drawing out the consequences of smoking. The Truth campaign thus …show more content…
ad- dresses one of the most successful messages in antismoking advertising aimed at youth: rather than telling teens tobacco companies are manipulating them, these ads encourage teens to ask their own questions of this industry, empowering them to be more mature and savvy in a way that tobacco industries discourage.
Good virtue [aretï]
In On Rhetoric, Aristotle says that virtue “is an ability [dynamis], as it seems, that is pro- ductive and preservative of goods, and an ability for doing good in many and great ways, actually in all ways in all things [1366b]” (79). The subdivisions of virtue are
“justice, manly courage, self-control, magnificence, magnanimity, liberality, gentle- ness, prudence, and wisdom” (79–80). “Thegreatest virtues,” he continues, “are neces- sarily those most useful to others. For that reason people most honor the just and the courageous” (80). Indeed, the “just and the courageous” are present throughout all of the Truth ads. Along with wisdom, they comprise the main subdivisions of virtue at work in this form of rhetoric.
One Truth billboard depicts an older man in a bikini holding a cigarette; the cap- tion is “No wonder tobacco executives hide behind sexy models.” This advertisement demonstrates both the “just and the courageous” by implying that tobacco
companies’ ads do not have these qualities. This bill-board communicates that tobacco execu- tives are not courageous because they need to hide. The Truth campaign points to the virtue of their counter-advertising campaign, telling their audience, “Their brand is lies.
Our brand is truth.” This statement appears as a warning, much like the Surgeon Gen eral’s warning in a cigarette advertisement, suggesting that the Truth campaign does not danger the public. Their product (so to speak) is the quest for knowledge, the de- sire to point out the lies that are perpetu- ated by advertising paid for by the tobacco industry. As James L. Kinneavy and Susan C. War- shauer point out, virtue “is established when speakers give evidence that they are sincere and trustworthy. The audience must be con- vinced that the speaker will not deceive them” (174). Truth establishes its sincerity: while never directly telling the audience to refuse cigarettes, it does encourage teens to find the facts out for themselves. Thus, Truth is like an ethical orator because it presents its audience with facts they may use to make in- formed decisions.
Kinneavy and Warshauer also discuss the relationship between arïteand the Greek word
Ariston, which means “nobility” or “aristoc- racy.” This etymological relationship points to the consideration of culture in the ethical ar- gument: “The effectiveness of an ethical ap- peal thus depends on one’s ability to gauge so- ciety’s values and to display them—indeed to affirm them—in one’s speech” (175). This ex- planation reinforces the point that considera- tion of the group to whom one is speaking is crucial to making a successful ethical argu- ment, specifically in the case of these adver- tisements for Truth. Kinneavy and Warshauer imply that in persuading the audience that she is virtuous, the rhetor must be able to con-