Last Name 1 “Student Name” Prof. Abdul-Jabbaar English 102 April, 2014. The Smoking Kid. According to the World Health Organization, one billion people out of the world’s population of seven billion are smokers. Furthermore, approximately one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco smoking, which accounts for one in every ten adult deaths. Needless to say, now more than ever, the world’s governments and health organizations are keen to raise awareness about the dangers of smoking and eventually promote the decline of tobacco usage in general with the media as their vessel of choice, owing to its various forms and proven ability to reach millions of people at a go. This is where we’ve made our niche. As newly employed members of this advertising agency, it is important that you keep up with the trends and learn from the ‘Da Vinci’s’ of this industry. Only then can you stay relevant. Numerous campaigns have been launched worldwide but few have had the impact that the ‘Smoking Kid’ ad created by our competition over at ‘Ogilvy&Mather’ has had. The forty per cent increase in phone calls to the Thai Health Promotion Foundation hotline after the ad was aired is undisputable proof that the ad was in fact successful in reaching the masses and motivating them to seek professional assistance. The ‘Smoking Kid’ ad was initially created with the mature Thai smoking population in mind. This is seen by the fact that the ad itself is in the Thai language. The ad focuses on adults with the youngest being at least eighteen or so, and mature enough to fully comprehend and understand the negative effects of smoking tobacco. The message being passed through this ad, as is the same with all other anti-smoking ads, is that smoking is harmful to one’s health and should therefore be curbed in order to prevent future Commented [MA1]: Hook Commented [MA2]: Transition Commented [MA3]: Thesis Commented [MA4]: Topic sentence Last Name 2 complications. What is particularly striking about this ad is the fact that it employs a unique tactic where children are used to warn adults about the dangers of smoking, whereas it is usually the other way around. This deviation from the norm, in my opinion, is what makes the ad even more effective than the usual ‘shock and scare’ methods that other ads use every so often. It becomes apparent as soon as you watch the ad that the creators were focused on appealing to the audience’s emotions. Smoking adults are a common sight in society. Young teenagers who smoke are chastised in many social settings as being in a rebellious phase. However, mere children smoking is just downright atrocious and in most cases isn’t tolerated, endorsed or encouraged. Therefore, having a child walk up to a smoking adult and ask to borrow a lighter would no doubt elicit a particular r ...

1. Last Name 1
“Student Name”
Prof. Abdul-Jabbaar
English 102
April, 2014.
The Smoking Kid.
According to the World Health Organization, one billion
people out of the world’s population of
seven billion are smokers. Furthermore, approximately one
person dies every six seconds due to tobacco
smoking, which accounts for one in every ten adult deaths.
Needless to say, now more than ever, the
world’s governments and health organizations are keen to raise
awareness about the dangers of smoking
and eventually promote the decline of tobacco usage in general
with the media as their vessel of choice,
owing to its various forms and proven ability to reach millions
of people at a go. This is where we’ve

2. made our niche. As newly employed members of this
advertising agency, it is important that you keep up
with the trends and learn from the ‘Da Vinci’s’ of this industry.
Only then can you stay relevant.
Numerous campaigns have been launched worldwide but few
have had the impact that the ‘Smoking Kid’
ad created by our competition over at ‘Ogilvy&Mather’ has had.
The forty per cent increase in phone
calls to the Thai Health Promotion Foundation hotline after the
ad was aired is undisputable proof that the
ad was in fact successful in reaching the masses and motivating
them to seek professional assistance.
The ‘Smoking Kid’ ad was initially created with the
mature Thai smoking population in mind. This
is seen by the fact that the ad itself is in the Thai language. The
ad focuses on adults with the youngest
being at least eighteen or so, and mature enough to fully
comprehend and understand the negative effects
of smoking tobacco. The message being passed through this ad,
as is the same with all other anti-smoking
ads, is that smoking is harmful to one’s health and should
therefore be curbed in order to prevent future
Commented [MA1]: Hook
Commented [MA2]: Transition

3. Commented [MA3]: Thesis
Commented [MA4]: Topic sentence
Last Name 2
complications. What is particularly striking about this ad is the
fact that it employs a unique tactic where
children are used to warn adults about the dangers of smoking,
whereas it is usually the other way around.
This deviation from the norm, in my opinion, is what makes the
ad even more effective than the usual
‘shock and scare’ methods that other ads use every so often.
It becomes apparent as soon as you watch the ad that the
creators were focused on appealing to the
audience’s emotions. Smoking adults are a common sight in
society. Young teenagers who smoke are
chastised in many social settings as being in a rebellious phase.
However, mere children smoking is just
downright atrocious and in most cases isn’t tolerated, endorsed
or encouraged. Therefore, having a child
walk up to a smoking adult and ask to borrow a lighter would no
doubt elicit a particular reaction. In the

4. ad, the unsuspecting adults were clearly taken aback by the fact
that these young children had the audacity
to walk up to them with such requests. Society has us regard
children as innocent beings unable to cater
for themselves, and rightfully so. In addition to that, humans
are altruistic beings that fend for their young
even though they may not be biologically related. Watching this
ad, the audience immediately feels
responsible for these children and even protective of them since
they are aware that smoking from such a
young age could mean nothing but trouble for them in the near
future. Similarly, the adults filmed for the
ad feel the need to steer these children away from their
erroneous ways and lead them on the right path.
Furthermore, the children handed each of the smokers a paper
with a message on it. The message was
written in the ‘child’s voice’ and it read ‘You worry about me
but not about yourself’. This was a triumph
on the part of the ad creators because it enhanced the emotional
aspect of the ad by reciprocating to the
adults the caring nature that they first displayed towards the
children.
‘Ogilvy & Mather’ opted to let the emotional foundation
on which the ad is built speak for itself

5. backed only by the simplest inkling of logic. In the ad, as soon
as the children ask for a lighter, the adults
begin to list out the complications and ailments brought about
by smoking. All the while, the children
listen patiently as if absorbing each word being uttered to them.
When the adults stop, positive that their
message has been heard and received well by the children, they
are left speechless by the simplest of
Commented [MA5]: Topic sentence focuses on pathos
(emotions)
Commented [MA6]: Topic sentence focuses on logic
(logos)
Last Name 3
questions posed to them. ‘If it’s so bad, why don’t you stop
smoking?’ This is a typical case of deductive
reasoning. The first premise would be ‘Smoking negatively
affects the lives of all human beings both
directly and indirectly’. The second premise would be ‘There
are over seven billion human beings on
Earth’. The obvious conclusion, given the fact that both
premises are in fact true, is that all seven billion
human beings on Earth are being negatively affected by

6. smoking whether it is directly or indirectly. The
logic brought to light by the children through what I believe to
be a rhetorical question is one that is
difficult to refute or ignore. It does, however, have the desired
effect of getting the target audience to
reflect upon their situation from an obvious but often
overlooked perspective.
It is the norm for campaign ads to have a ‘face’, usually
a celebrity or well-known public figure, to
reach out to the target audience. The SING campaign has Annie
Lennox, the African Wildlife Foundation
has Jackie Chan and L’Oreal has Blake Lively. The ‘face’ of an
ad is not chosen at random but is instead
picked based on his or her ability to reach the target audience
and propel the ad to greater heights. The
‘Smoking Kid’ has no celebrity ‘face’ but it has something even
better and more effective…children.
Annie Lennox, Jackie Chan and Blake Lively, though famous in
their respective niches and fan bases, are
not capable of evoking reactions as dramatic and instantaneous
as children can. As I mentioned earlier,
children are the universal symbol of innocence and hope. Their
effect transcends language barriers, race
and age alike. No single celebrity has or ever will be able to

7. have an impact as strong as that. ‘Ogilvy &
Mather’ used this to their advantage when they got the children
to indirectly ask the adults about the
dangers of smoking. The responses from the adults included
‘smoking will make you look old’, ‘smoking
leads to cancer and emphysema’, ‘smoking makes you die
faster’, ‘you’ll have to get a hole through your
throat when you’re older’ and so on. Evidently, the adults were
well aware of the future implications
smoking would bring about but they carried on regardless. This
ingenious manner of questioning them
used their own credibility against themselves. Essentially,
despite the fact that they didn’t realize it at the
time, the adults filmed in the ad worked in conjunction with the
children to warn themselves as well as
other smokers about the risks involved with regards to smoking
tobacco.
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(face).
Last Name 4
As an advertising agency, one of the most important
aspects that we focus on before releasing an ad

8. is the timing. It would be totally useless to release an ad about
the imminent threat of the Second World
War mostly because it ended almost seven decades ago and is
now absolutely irrelevant. The ‘Smoking
Kid’ was released at a time when smoking in Thailand was at an
all-time high and the deaths brought
about by it were just as escalated. The location where the ad is
shot is equally important because it too has
the ability to either make or break a successful ad. Since the ad
was created for a Thai audience, the
streets of Bangkok were the most logical place to shoot the ad.
In addition to that, the Thai language was
used throughout and had the effect of creating a more homely
and localized feel. Lastly, the audience was
borne in mind throughout the entire process. This is evident
through the fact that Thai locals are used for
the ad. The incorporation of young Thai children was also
effective because it ensured that the exchange
between the adults and children was smooth and free-flowing
devoid of language barriers and any other
biases such as race and/or ethnicity. It is also worth noting that
the ad features both a male and female
child, which works to eliminate any gender bias. On that very
same note, notice that ‘Ogilvy&Mather’

9. chose to use real life footage rather than shoot a scripted ad.
This is more effective because it mirrors the
audience’s exact reactions which in turn heightens the effect of
the ad itself.
As of now, the ‘Smoking Kid’ is the ‘Mona Lisa’ of ads.
It got over five million views in a span of
just ten days and it brought forth a mighty discussion about the
dangers of smoking that totaled over
twenty thousand comments. Most importantly, its release saw a
noted increase in calls to anti-smoking
hotlines by over forty percent! A feat unheard of in the
advertising circles! Every ad has a purpose that it
aims to achieve either by stating it outright or by subliminal
means. This particular ad incorporates a
technique that lies halfway between the two ends of that
spectrum and the result is nothing short of mind-
blowing.
Despite its success, many have bashed the ‘Smoking Kid’
calling it an overly-simplified ad that
probably wouldn’t be able to reach an international or even
global audience for that matter. This couldn’t
be further from the truth. It is this very same simplicity that has
seen the ad aired in over thirty countries

10. Commented [MA8]: Topic sentence focuses on timing
(kairos)
Last Name 5
mostly in Asia and Sub-Saharan Arica, all of which granted it
free press coverage. All this occurred
despite the language barrier and differences in cultural as well
as social settings. The only tweak was the
addition of English subtitles to allow other audiences to
understand the ongoing dialogue. This just goes
to show that the power of an ad lies not only within the stunts
and celebrity appearances, but also within
the message and the manner in which it is put forward.

11. Commented [MA9]: Conclusion
Last Name 6
Works Cited
“World Health Organization Report on the Global Tobacco
Epidemic of 2013”. World Health
Organization. n.p, n.d. Web. 12th April. 2014.
Robinson, Gwen. “Ad Deconstructed: The Smoking Kid.” The
Financial Times. 25th June. 2012. Web.
12th April. 2014.