How Basic Can You Get?

Basic cigarette ads have one basic message and that is pretty basic because The Best Things In Life are Basic and one wants to Keep it Basic. Perhaps this series of ads ought to have been placed on the Words page rather than under slang. There are interesting allusions relating to basic human activities cast by the ad captions. But there isn't much surprise in them. And neither is there in the advertising. However the author has only superficially appraised these ads so it is possible that something has been missed.

The ads are pretty neat, pretty basic and as homespun as one could wish. However, whenever possible they do their best to keep up the tradition of cigarette ads through the ages. Keep cigarettes sexy. If they can insert an image that has connotations that are a little bit more exciting than those normally associated with cups of coffee then they do so. But not too exciting. After all whoever smokes Basic doesn't like too much change, nor too much challenge, even if they read Playboy, the source of a number of these ads. The nearest you will get to the sexy type of messages found in Silk Cut, Marlboro, Benson and Hedges (UK) and other brands is in the association between the caption and thecontents of the ads. Note, that I am not referring simply to a single ad. This series of five ads all have something in common.

Sometimes a little more oomph is given to ads by introducing elements that could be considered indicative of other activities. And, if cigarettes have to be perceived as sexy, then note first the connotations associated with 'tools' and the correspondence between the caption 'The Best Things In Life Are Basic, and the phallic shape of the prow of the canoe on the left.

If this had been a Marlboro ad one would expect to find SX embedded inthe grass alongside Basic. Not here. In Basic ads it is rare to find the type of element one can note in the ad on the right. There you will find something more akin to the usual semi-subliminal elements in cigarette ads (see also the Basic ad in Ads of the Month). The smoke vaguely resembles the sideways profile of a woman. It is not as clear as one would expect but if this is intended to be a representation of a woman, is the woman who brings the smoker his cuppa in bed his mother or his lover? Only an appraisal of other ads could help one determine that.

In general any subsidiary, covert, message in a Basic ad is elusive and at least one stage removed from the obvious meanings. The ad illustrated below, for example, is about painting and decorating. Or is it?

Note that the paint is red. In the top centrethere is a darker patch of colour, just above the cigarette that is not in the pack. The cigarette in fact seems to be penetrating the darker patch. Should we take this to indicate sexual intercourse, during the menstrual period? This is only a tentative suggestion but, given the preponderance of cigarette advertising that draws together sexuality and cigarette smoking, then the only factor likely to differentiate advertising for Basic smokers from that of other brands will be what is incorporated in advertising and promotional activities. These need to be tailored to the psychographic characteristics of Basic smokers. If they are as Basic as their preference for such a brand name indicates, then they are either pretty much mother's boys or else they are pretty basic in other ways, perhaps even combining the two sets of characteristics.

The interpretation of these ads has been stretched further than the interpretations of many of the other ads on this web site. While this may be farfetched to the minds of some viewers it is recommended that they read a few books such as by Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and meaning in advertising by Judith Williamson. Reading this book, and many of the others in the communication/psychology sections of the bibliography, will soon indicate that the meanings extracted by a viewer, consciously and unconsciously, is a 'collaborative effort' based on cues or symbols in the ad and the meanings associated with them in a variety of contexts. Conversely, the inclusion of particular objects and their layout is determined by the meanings the ad agency wishes to convey to viewers. This meaning may be clear or it may be covert, the ad agencies may get their arrangement of visual and textual elements correct or they may not. But the outcome is that the meaning in all such instances is not simply in the ad, nor is it in the mind of the viewer. In part this will be true. But the meaning also has a larger 'stage'. Meanings are, if effect, 'agents' within society i.e. the meaning is only important in so far as it will play a part in communication between senders and recipients. All communication requires at least two individuals, a recipient and a sender and in this instance it is ad agencies sending messages to viewers, with the component parts of that message determined by what the ad agency know or expect the viewer to respond to.

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Future Developments

Would you be interested in supporting the development of a web site focussing specifically on cigarette advertising, smoking behaviour, nicotine addiction and related information? In particular would you like to help encourage youngsters to develop a healthy scepticism about advertising practices associated with cigarette advertising and promotion? If you can offer either financial assistance to develop such a site or have material available that could be of use on such a site, the author would be pleased if you would contact him.