Getting Back To Reality With Cigarette.

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If both husband and wife smoke, their children are twice as likely to smoke, as are the children of non-smokers. The impact of cigarette advertising can't be measured in terms of packs or cartons; it has to be measured in terms of generations.

Consider this—in 1958, a year in which the public was being very adequately informed about the cancer and coronary diseases that are so frequently linked directly with excessive smoking, the consumption of cigarettes per person over 15 years of age reached a new peak. We consumed 430 billion cigarettes—about 3600 per person. And that was way back in '58, before teen-age smoking had reached such excessive proportions that a national television program on the subject was warranted!

After you have read this chapter, please hunt out as many commercials and advertisements as you can. It may sound juvenile of me, but I want you to talk back to those copywriters and salesmen. Before you talk back, however, listen to the spiels and read the copy. Carefully, intently. Act as if your life depended on it, because it may . . .

The last thing the advertising agencies want you to do, of course, is to pay strict attention to every element of their message. If you listen carefully, you may challenge it. If you watch with more than half an eye, listen with more than half an ear, or do more than glance at a photograph, a headline and a tagline, you may realize that much of the advertisement makes no sense whatsoever.

Worst of all from the advertiser's point of view is the fact that if you consciously evaluate the message, you won't subconsciously accept the suggestions it contains. So all the advertiser wants you to get is an "image." A fleeting feeling of pleasure, security, luxury, wisdom, or romance . . .

There's a quick way to test any claims made by anybody, be he salesman or politician. You simply ask three questions:

"How come?"

"So what?"

"Who says?"

These nasty questions probe to the heart of any statement. If a statistic is thrown at you, they enable you to test the validity of that statistic, its source and its significance.

The first thing you'll notice is that no advertiser claims that his product is good for you. That's a thing of the past, and I see no reason to recall yesterday's sins. But the advertiser does try to get you to "identify" his brand with "things" that are good for you.

With health and agility and youthful radiance. With people (actors, singers and athletes), with people who should know a lot about science and health (anybody in a white jacket).

Get to recognize this "transfer of identity." Get so you can say, "I know that swimming's good for me, Mac. But this isn’t." Be ready to tell the pitchman that you love the American landscape as much as anybody else, but that this doesn't mean that you should also love the product.