Visual Elements of the 3 Cs: Culture, Commercials and Censorship

Have you ever seen a pro-smoking commercial on TV? The answer is probably no unless you grew up in the 60s or possibly watched this commercial:

The video integrates tobacco smoking into the cartoon as a casual pastime that is effortless compared to the exhausting workload of women- which is shown at the start of the commercial. Barney implies that Winston cigarettes are the best ways to relax and re-energize compared to naps through the phrase "I got a better idea..." As a result, the bandwagon fallacy is applied when Betty and Wilma become envious of the men and join them smoking.

It is hard to come to grips with the fact that a beloved children's show like the Flinstones would promote a mortal threat such as smoking. The content would be exceedingly criticized if the commercial was advertise today, which demonstrates the cultural shift of Americans since the 60s. Back then, it was cool to smoke and the smoking culture was much prominent compared to today. With the awareness of its numerous health effects, Americans now frown upon the activity by the blatant restrictions of smoking designated areas or the unpronounced side eye individuals give to smokers.


In 2013, our university became a smoke-free campus to promote the community's "health and wellbeing" as stated by President Loh. This policy reiterates the consensus of the UMD family- and the younger generation at large- that we should take active measures to say no to smoking; a contradiction of the cultural message of TV in the 60s.

So blending smoking ads in kid's television shows is not a good idea, but why can't one find a cigarette ad on TV? Because they were banned in the 70s! In this age, one would think that the censorship of television is almost nonexistent because of the display of abusive, sexual and graphic scenes on the screen, but TV still filters some of its messages.

This is a typical cigarette commercial of today:

Captioned "The Real Cost Commercial:Bully", this add clearly contradicts the pro-smoking commercial. Firstly, the title "Real Cost" suggests that the first commercial sells a pretense story to the viewers, whereas this one unveils the reality of smoking. This video portrays the irony of  miniature people (representing cigarettes) having more power and controlling enormous people. Additionally, the ad villainizes the cigarettes as interrupting a favorite pastime (watching TV) rather than contributing to a pastime like the pro-smoking ad illustrates.

The visual elements of both commercials can give a strong indication of the public's cultural values and stance on censorship.

-Njillan Sarre