Amanda Rhoads

February 9, 2010

I chose this advertisement because after looking through many on the internet this one hit me the hardest. I think for me personally it is very successful because my mom is my best friend and I could never imagine hurting her emotionally or physically. This ad was interesting to me because it doesn’t show the meth user at all in the photo, it is strictly focusing on the aftermath of what using meth can do to people around you. This is attempting to control or stop the use of meth. I feel that if this were on a billboard it would be too graphic for younger children who have yet to understand this kind of behavior. This can also lead to more questions about this issue and I think sometimes questions put ideas into children’s heads that may overall spark their interest in meth. The only participant in this ad is the use of texts because it is the only connection we have to what this advertisement is actually trying to tell us. I view this as a conceptual ad because it is very abstract and without the use of text we would have no idea this was due to the use of meth. I think this ad is successful however I do think the modality could be higher. I believe this ad is showing what could actually happen to a mother of a meth user however because of the blood stains on her shirt and vibrancy of the color saturation, some of the image seems less truthful. I feel that this ad could do more harm than good if placed on a billboard because of its graphic content. However if this was used in a different context where the target audience was the only audience viewing this I think it could be successful. Most teenagers view their parents as their support therefor this ad could really put things in perspective for both users who have experienced this or for those who were thinking about experimenting with this drug. After searching this week for advertisements that both sparked my interest and also conveyed a truthful meaning I realized how hard it is to try to change peoples behaviors with just one glance at a billboard such as this one. People are very much afraid of change which is probably why these billboards are so hard to get across to the youth today. I feel that my generation has an attitude that were going to do what we want to do no matter what sign we see or what bad things people say could happen from doing drugs such as meth. Our attitude is what makes me feel that these signs are simply just a security blanket for worried mothers or mothers who are trying to get their own children off meth. I think some advertisements leave out the group of people who are already addicted. An addiction like meth is so intense that I don’t think an ad such as this one is strong enough to end an addiction. We need more advertisements focused on positive reasons to quit because this ad is simply just scaring the youth that was thinking about using. We need more ads to end current drug addictions.

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