Media Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Media Analysis - Essay Example When presenting an  advertisement, there are usually a set of rules meant to  govern  what and what not to be included in the advertisement. The rules are there to  keep  the  advertisement  from being â€Å"bad†. An advertisement should not encourage any vices, should not be  racist, and should not promote violence and so on. To ensure that this does not happen, there are media ethics that are there to be followed (Ward 6). Media ethics are a  set  of  rule  expected to be followed by journalist, should be based on ethics of universal  being (Ward 6). They should be  keen  on the well being of the human being. Without the ethical foundation, relativism undermines the  conception  of the right and makes  our  practices  unreasonable. In the case of advertising, there might be a difference in understanding, and judging an  advertisement  because of several things; it might be the  environment  one  has been brought  up in, it might be a difference in age, level of education, and so on. In this paper, I  intend  to  break  down two cigarette advertisements and  show  the  significance  of my findings. I will also discuss the appeals used and whether they are ethical or not. In the first advertisement, the chesterfield cigarette  commercial, there is the use of animation and humor. A King intends to  knight  a loyal  subject  if he can  confess  that the chesterfield king is the best. The loyal subject seems  desperate  to be knighted that even if he does not know much about the king of chesterfield, he does not admit it. He  is helped  by the king’s advisor and impresses the king. The king’s advisor warns the  king  to use his  flat  side of the  sword  to avoid what happened the last time. As the advisor warns the king, he mimics the  cutting  of a throat. As the king, knights the loyal subject, he swings his sword powerfully and chops o ff the  loyal  subject’s head.  In the advertisement, the king represents the  cigarette, the loyal  subject  represents the smoker, and the advisor represents the luring of the smoker to smoking.  The smoker seeks the  pleasure  of the  cigarette  when he goes to be knighted; the  king  who is the  cigarette  gives the pleasure but eventually kills the smoker. In the advertisement, there is more concentration on the good  side  of smoking (knighted) than the bad side. It is not clear whether the  loyal  subject is the killed. Smoking  is well known  all over the world as  unhealthy, despite that people still smoke. In the second advertisement, Flintstones for Winston cigarette there is the use of animation and an  immensely  popular cartoon character (Fred Flintstone). He  is then brought  out as a loyal customer of the Winston cigarette. The seller of the  cigarette  still goes into details about the uniqueness of the cigarette despite Fred Flintstone being  familiar  to the cigarette. He puts the  cigarette  on Fred’s mouth and calls it  practice. The  cigarette  is portrayed  as a sweet cigarette with a good length, making it better than the rest of the cigarettes. Unlike the chesterfield advertisement, this advertisement concentrates solely on the goodness of the cigarette. Analysis of the two advertisements In the chesterfield cigarette  advertisement, it is  significant  to  note  the use of animation on the advertisement. Although the  advertisement  has tried to portray the