Semiotics #2 - ASH Advertisement

Upon first glance, it is obvious that this image is imitating the twin towers.  It is an image that is widely understood in America and is easy to relate to for those who were old enough to remember this event taking place in their lifetime.  However, there is an obvious twist in this image because the towers aren't actually towers, rather, they are burning cigarettes.  When I first looked at this image it struck me because my first thought was that they were comparing the severity of smoking to a terrorist attack that shook our country.  This was a powerful parallel to make, and it made me think about it more deeply.  The billowing smoke coming from the cigarettes is quite literally showing the act of smoking, however, I think it is symbolically representing the deaths that are caused by that smoke, or that disaster.  Of course, there is the help of the copy at the bottom that says, "Terrorism-related deaths since 2001: 11,337 … Tobacco-related deaths since 2001: 30,000,000."  There is a huge disparity between those statistics and it makes you really think about how serious the effects of tobacco can be on your health.  If we were to delve even deeper, I think even the background could be symbolic.  At face value, it is representing a clear sky, like the crystal clear sky on September 11th before the first plane hit the towers.  But it could also be symbolic of the unawareness of people to the severity of what is coming in the future.  The blue sky, to me, represents the fact that people go about their daily lives in a carefree way, without thinking about the consequences of what events could occur in the future.  To them, the "sky" is crystal clear - nothing can go wrong, or "something like that can't possibly happen to me."  But in reality, the effects of tobacco on one's body are inevitable and those skies won't be clear blue for long.  The fact that it compares the effects of tobacco to the devastation of a terrorist attack is striking because it shows that smoking isn't just taking a toll on one person's life - it is an epidemic, or a mass disaster, as millions of people are addicted to smoking.  Not only that, but smoking doesn't just affect the person who is addicted, it affects their loved ones.  Just as the deaths of those who died on 9/11 made a lasting effect on the lives of their families, the deaths of those caused by smoking tobacco effects the people who love them as well.