Lucky Struck Out! The main goal of any corporation is to maximize profits. Corporations go to great lengths to sell their products to customers, often with complete disregard for the environmental impact, public safety, and health concerns. One of the best examples of these types companies are tobacco companies. Tobacco products have been proven to cause certain types of cancer, but that won’t stop big tobacco companies from maximizing profit. One of the most effective ways for tobacco companies to maximize profit is by purchasing print advertisements. However, there is a big difference between how a tobacco company advertises today, and how was done in the past. Years back, before Americans became aware of the serious health risks of cigarettes, tobacco companies could get away with a lot more than they can today. For example, the tobacco advertisement that I will be analyzing …show more content…
It features a sexualized image of a dancing woman from that period holding a cigarette, with an overexaggerated look of happiness. This ad is effective because it uses sex, status, and anecdotal evidence to relate to its customers. The first thing I noticed in the ad was the title of the ad that says,” Be Happy-Go lucky!”. It is written in large red font and demands your attention. Red is also a color of passion and desire and when we see these colors it has a subconscious effect. The logo on the lucky strike cigarette packaging is red in hopes to associate its brand with these positive connotations. The shirt of the 1950’s sexualized woman is also red. The image of the sexualized woman looks like it was painted, or hand drawn, and her red shirt highlights her seemingly erect breasts. The artificially enhanced illustration of breasts shows the advertisements clear and effective intent to use certain colors and sex to sell tobacco products to unsuspecting customers. Also, in the 1950’s women were just beginning to dress less