Bad ads are music to my ears. For some reason I get joy out of horrible print advertisements. I like seeing ads that contradict themselves or don't make any sense. This ad for American Spirit cigarettes says, "100% additive-free natural tobacco." Great, I can smoke my cigarettes and not have to worry about toxic carcinogens. This additive-free claim sounds like good news; a way of promoting American Spirits over other brands. But at the bottom left corner there is a disclaimer saying, "No additives in our tobacco does NOT mean a safer cigarette." Hmmm. Not only is this warning grammatically incorrect (the 'does' should be a 'do') we come to find out American Spirits aren't really better for you, just different from other brands who include additives in their cigs. Obviously cigarettes are bad for you--common sense to most people. But it seems contradictory and unnecessary to mention no additives when it really doesn't make that much of a difference in the long run.
1 comment:
"No additives in our tobacco does NOT mean a safer cigarette." Hmmm. Not only is this warning grammatically incorrect (the 'does' should be a 'do')
it essentially means "having/there being no additives in our tobacco does not mean a safer cigarette". It is grammatically correct - the subject is the singular fact that there are no additives in the tobacco, not determined by plural nature of "additives".
Besides, when you do consumer insight, this ad is targeted at smokers, the thoughts of non-smokers and harm are irrelevant to product placement. This may very well be an important issue n the purchasing process of smokers.
Just thought I'd point it out. I'm a communications student surfing for an ad presentation, stumbled upon your blog.
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