Slogans in Ads

Cigarette advertisements have been spreading through all media, either

printed or electronic media. Cigarettes with various brands are promoted

vigorously by the advertisers as the cigarette producers need to sell their product

in a large scale. Promoting goods through advertisements is one common strategy

used, because advertising is a powerful communication tool. (Russel Lane,

Cigarette, hence, become the communication devices designed by the

advertisers to communicate their messages with their potential consumers.

However, there has been a very interesting phenomenon in the case of cigarette

advertisement that causes controversies among the producers or the advertisers on

one side, and the government on the other side.

Since there have been popular demands for a better protection for human's

health, thus, the Governments intensely campaign against smoking with its

predicted negative side effects, such as the health hazards of lung cancer, heart

attack, impotence, and its possible risks of fetal injury, the premature birth, and

low birth weight. Tobacco's advertisements have been banned in Western Europe,

such as in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy,

Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and in United Kingdom, with variations in its application of the prohibition (Bovee and Arens. Indonesia, the

Health Department, speaking for the Indonesian Government, also declares some

warnings concerning the health hazards that may occur from smoking. The warnings are always stated, either spoken or written, along with the cigarette

advertisements. Thus, if, the advertisements are promoted in television, the

warnings are mentioned at the end of the few-second-advertisement, and if they

are published through printed media such as the newspapers and magazines, the

warnings are put at a certain corner of the advertising page. Even more, the

warnings about the health hazards are also stated in each package of the cigarette

itself By communicating those risks, Government regulator seek to both inform

users about the circumstances under which their health and safety might be

jeopardized and advise them as to what actions they can take to reduce the risk

(Leiss.1998:137)Thus, the idea of the warnings is that the Government seriously

intend to remind the smokers that smoking is indeed a dangerous thing since it

could make them suffer from those dangerous diseases as mentioned in the

warnings.

However, cigarette smoking is a kind of a voluntary consumer choice,

even though it exposes individuals to a wide range of specific health hazards.

Consequently, creating cigarette advertisements with the risk communication

becomes, indeed, a quite complex task since almost everyone is now aware of the

health hazards which threaten his life. Thus, to create excellent advertisements,

the advertisers really have to creatively work extra hard due to the fact that the

Government is putting warnings along with their advertisements; also due to the

expectance that the advertisements should persuade people to buy the product

still, even though they know about the possible effect it may cause. Moreover, as

the advertisements are put everywhere, like in newspapers, magazines, billboards,

and in television and radio, thus they should be fully exquisite, prevailing

advertisements that make people effortlessly bear in mind about the product

advertised,