This document analyzes a cigarette advertisement from Popular Science Magazine. The advertisement is for Natural American Spirit cigarettes and uses various techniques to promote the product. It emphasizes that the cigarettes are made with organic tobacco grown in American soil. Large bold letters and close-up images of the cigarettes are used to draw attention to the product. Earth tone colors in the background further connect the product to ideas of naturalness and organic production. While warnings are included, they are in small print so as not to discourage purchasing. Through these visual and textual elements, the advertisement aims to portray Natural American Spirit cigarettes as a superior, natural product over other brands.

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Jennifer Myers
Dr. Bacha
EH101
11 October 2013
“Is Smoking Really Our Choice?”
Whether by their own free will or by peer pressure, smoking is a choice made by that one
person. Smoking can also become an addiction though. Today many advertisements, whether on
TV, magazine, newspaper, or even maybe a poster can influence a person‟s decision on the
choices they make in their life. People who smoke choose to do it because either their friends are
doing it or maybe the advertisements on TV or in a magazine made it look fun. In the Popular
ScienceMagazine, the Natural American Spirit Cigarettes Company is trying to display their
advertisement to make their cigarettes look like the better product to buy over any other
cigarette. To do this, bright, bold colors are used in the letters, and the words are made really
large. Also, cigarettes are zoomed in on to emphasize the product and show that this product is
the product to buy. To promote this product to the audience, Popular Science Magazine uses
logos, or logic, to show their audience that they should buy their product over anybody else.
In this
advertisement, logos is used throughout in the
pictures to promote
their product. As shown in figure one, there is
a pair of hands
holding the cigarettes along with a pile of soil.

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The cigarettes are zoomed in on because they are the main product and focus of the
advertisement and the product trying to be sold. The objective of zooming in on the object was to
show what product the advertisement was trying to sell. The product zoomed in on is the main
selling point and the product the audience is being convinced to purchase. The pile of soil in the
man‟s hands symbolizes that the cigarettes are organically made. In the background, the
audience can see the arms of the man and can tell that his arms are dirty from the soil. This also
symbolizes that the cigarettes are grown by men and not processed in a factory. This can also
show how they are made organically. Organically made cigarettes may appeal to more of the
intended audience because it looks like the better option to purchase. Even in bold print, the
advertisement states it is, “made with organic tobacco grown on American soil.” This is trying
to emphasize that it was made organically and that it was also made in America and not from
foreign soil. The audience, since citizens of the United States, would much rather have a
cigarette made from American soil than some foreign land. So this would attract the intended
audience.
To make the advertisement more interesting and to give more description of the product
to give an idea to the audience, the advertisement uses large sized words to grab the attention of
the audience to promote their product. In the advertisement, Popular Science states in big, bold
letters it states that it is “made with organic tobacco”. According to the Santa Fe Natural
Tobacco Company‟s website, “Organic is no chemicals and using what Mother Nature
provides.” The tobacco company wants to show that their product is organic to their audience
because they believe that it will show the audience that the product would be a better option than
non-organic cigarettes. In a smaller font, the advertisement states the warnings of smoking such
as, “lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and complications in a pregnancy.” This is not to

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prevent the audience from smoking, but it is a requirement by law to have that on there. They put
this statement in smaller print because the publisher wants the audience to focus on the product
and reasons to buy the product and not focus on reason why not to buy the product. Also in
small print, it says, “Organic tobacco does not mean a safer cigarette”, which is also required by
law to put on there. The publisher puts this phrase in smaller print because it does not capture the
audience‟s eye as much as the larger font and will not influence the buyers decision on whether
or not he should buy this product based on his safety and well-being. This is not to misdirect the
audience away from the product, but merely just following the law.
To tie the whole advertisement together, the background in the advertisement helps to
catch the reader‟s attention and helps show what the product is really in a deeper meaning. The
whole entire background is earthly colors such as brown, tan, and grey. The brown and tan are
similar to the color of dirt or soil, and the tan is a similar color to the carton of cigarettes. The
publisher chose to do these colors to compare to the color of the soil which ties in with how the
cigarettes were made organically. The background makes the audience think more about the
product and how it was made organically, and it should persuade the audience to buy the
product. All the colors in the advertisement, as you can see on page one, tie in with each other
and make the ad more eye pleasing and make want the audience to look at the ad. Then if the
reader looks at the eye, it may persuade them to buy the product over any other options they may
have.
Throughout the entire advertisement, logs, or logic, is used throughout in the use of
pictures to promote the product and persuade the audience to buy it over any other product
competing. Even though at the bottom of the advertisement it states the warnings of smoking, the
advertisement is not directing the audience away from the product, but simply following laws

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and requirements when advertising a product like cigarettes. In an advertisement, many
techniques are used to promote a product or describe a story. Some are more obvious than others.
Some techniques used can be the color of the background which can make the audience think a
lot deeper and think about the product much more.

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„Natural American Spirit.”Popular Science: The Future Now. Jacob Ward. FL. Gregory D.
Gatto, 2013. 37. Print.
Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company. “What is Organic?” N.p, 2012.Web. 6 Oct. 2013