Theories of Communication
They have been banned from television because their message was to influential to be seen by young adults throughout the country. Lawsuits have been fought against these companies for corrupting the mind of the youth and killing thousands of Americans each year. Their only place to reside, and advertise their product, is on the inside of magazine pages and on billboards nestled throughout the highways of America. What is the culprit of all this negative attention, cigarette ads. The specific add I am speaking of is found in the ESPN sports magazine, dated April 3, 2000. It is a Camel cigarettes add depicting a young man dressed in 1950's attire, blue jeans, greases hair, and a white T-shirt, with the sleeves rolled up, containing a pack of camel cigarettes rolled up in the sleeve. The gentleman appears to be in his early twenties and he is lighting a cigarette with a Zippo lighter. Ironically, the young man has a pager on! There is no background to the picture, just the man lighting the cigarette, and above his head is the message, " Camel, Pleasure to burn". This advertisement, like all advertisements on television, in magazines, on the radio, and on the Internet, is a form of mass communication. Mass
Finally, there is the cultivation theory, which focuses on the consequences of exposure to recurrent patterns of stories, images, and messages in the media on one's perception. In this case there is the recurrent theme of the "cool" guy, with his sleeves rolled up, smoking a cigarette. From the advertisement, one gets the idea that he is confident and good looking, and the fact that he has a pager on states that he is in some way important so that people will need to get in touch with him. The picture depicts the young man in great physical shape, without a blemish, and his James Dean demeanor allows him to take the form of a teen idol, which, allows him to attract a wide variety of young, white males, and also some females who find this character attractive. The second part of this theory states that the media shapes the people's view of reality. Smoking is a reality to everyone, so by placing it in a magazine the media is shaping a reality that is already known so that the message will be even easier to understand. The next theory is the Cultural theory. This theory is an attempt to explain how the ruling class tries to impose the dominant ideologies or beliefs of the ruling class, on the working class. The dominant ideologies of this advertisement are aimed at trying to persuade young, white males to smoke Camel cigarettes. It also is stating that cigarette smoking is "cool" since the
Some common words found in the essay are:
Propositions Assumptions, , Camel Pleasure, Fonzarelli Fonz, James Dean, Camel Company, mass communication, camel cigarettes, media message, apply media message, dominant ideologies, sports magazine, goal oriented, lighting cigarette, theory theory, sleeves rolled, cigarette advertisement,
Approximate Word count = 948
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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