Oral Analysis

i ave to Include:Symbolic, technical and written conventions.

Well im writing and english oral presentation annalysis about two smoking adverts located bellow.

Well please tell me what you think and correct anything that may be wrong with it.

Draft:

The year is 2009, life expectancy has increased dramatically, thanks to the hard work of scientists and doctors. Even with this huge jump in the prevention of disease, many still find ways to completely destroy, and leave their bodies prone to disease, cancer and many other horrible symptoms. Simply by inhaling the distasteful, toxic smoke of a cigarette that many willingly choose to smoke, even with the knowledge: “smoking will kill you”. This leaves them in the end with a pocket full of buds and death certificate.

Today I will be talking about two adverts; one of these adverts presents an anti-smoking advert that attempts to prevent people from taking up smoking. The second image presents smoking in a good light, laid back, cool and beneficial practice to the smoker. This advent could have been found on the back of a magazine called “popular science”, published in the 1950’s

Thanks to the well made anti-smoking campaigns the smoking numbers have decreased. With the use of visual conventions, anti-smoking adverts have become more effective then pro-smoking adverts as they attempt to frighten smokers out of their addiction by displaying disturbing images of what has become of smokers as well as explaining the effects. The effects of smoking as well the banning of pro-smoking adverts have allowed people to be less tempted to begin smoking in the first place. However there was a time when pro-smoking adverts were allowed and the effects weren’t as widely known. Smoking was considered to be an ordinary practice not only this but it was considered to be “cool”.

Symbolic conventions have been used in a similar manner in both adverts. The facial expression of the ex-smoker is seen to be dull, unhappy and sad; which represents his pain and suffering as well as the need to use a voice box to interact with people around him. The voice box symbolizes that he is in need of it to explain his situation in the text to the right of his head. However in the pro-smoking advert the lady is seen to be holding a cigarette and her facial expression symbolizes, that she is happy because of such a little thing; which is the cigarette in hear hand and doesn’t know of the negative effects or else doesn’t express them. Her clothing and the quality of the advert symbolizes that this photo was taken a few decades ago unlike the pro-smoking advert, which is seen to be better quality, also the ex-smokers clothing can be seen to be more modern. The pro-smoking image quality is fall less than the anti-smoking image; thus it can be said that the pro-smoking image was taking way after that of the anti-smoking image as camera’s ability to take better photo’s as well as printing quality has increased from the 1950’s.

Technical conventions have been used in both images to portray to the viewer the important aspects of the advert. Both adverts have used a medium shot so as to get the viewer to concentrate on the symbolic conventions; in the pro-smoking advert the shot encourages the viewer to see the facial expression as well as the cigarette. In the anti-smoking advert the subject’s placement is positioned to right hand side, so that the viewers may glance at the image, read the text and then make sense of the symbolic conventions. The medium shot in this advert helps express the symbolic conventions also the lighting effects of the subject’s face helps to better made out his expression and discomfort.

The pro-smoking advert, the ex-smoker has replaced his cigarette with a voice box, which is used to help him speak – This portrays to the viewer that he had to use this, to explain his condition; the text on the side.

this is used to act like he had to use it to say the text on the left of his head.

The headings in both adverts imply the reason for them, for instance the pro-smoking adverts sole purpose is to sell cigarettes so therefore it focus on using emotive words such as; mildness, the ripe, coolness, the delicate taste and the fragrance of smoking. The anti-smoking advert is more direct.The fact that smoking is underlined in the heading “smoking is believing” in the pro-smoking advert, this helps catch the viewers attention as well as promoting the action word that is “smoking”. The heading for the anti-smoking advert makes the viewer smoker or not, feel remorse for this person who will never be able to fix, what he has cause upon himself, by smoking. This text helps create a sense of reality for smokers as they start to image themselves in his position. Also by referring to the voice box as “This machine” it appeals to the reader and hints that he despises using it and if he could he would never have smoked if he had know this would have happened.

In conclusion no-a-days people see cigarettes in a different light, the fact that the effects override the need to smoke or learning from example of other misfortune, to override the temptation and learn to say no. Today society see’s smokers as money wasters, bad breathed and unwilling to be around, because of the stench of burned cigarettes that orbit their body. The fact that us humans learn from example, we look at others and learn from their mistakes and hopefully change our ways to prevent ourselves and others from harm. However many didn’t know of the harm of smoking back in the 1950’s, so these pro-smoking adverts would have been seen as the norm and the meaning take up, in most cases without hesitation. Informing smokers of the danger by example helps them to free themselves from the grasps of addiction so that they can live a life without suffering.