Assignment 2 Essay and Background Infos

The title of this print advertisement is Deathbed. Deathbed is a production to serve as a brand for The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation’s anti smoking campaign. Chi&Partner London UK is the advertising agency for this print advertisement. The official website of CHI&Partner London UK is http://CHI&PARTNERS.COM. The respective creative director is Ewan Paterson. Main art concept is directed by Dave Masterman. Ed Edwards is the copywriter for this print advertisement. This advertisement uses stock photography from various sources. This meaningful, eye-catching and stunning print advertisement is designed by the famous designer - Kylie Mclean. On 23/03/09, Deathbed is published/released/aired on worldwide websites and newspaper.

Deathbed primary targets are public and smokers because everyday these people are related to cigarette and smoke. There are a few intended messages of Deathbed. The advertisement want to tell the audience that smoking will slowly lead them to the hospital bed because of the consequences. Other than this, Deathbed will alert the self-consciousness inside their hearts. This print advertisement also will create awareness to public so that they are clear about the cons of smoking. Deathbed also let people know the risks of smoking.

Many people smokes is because the influence by friends. They think smoking as a trend, a lifestyle, a way to release tension but they ignore the bad effects of smoking. The “trend” of smoking is a code to identify this print advertisement. Most of the people will understand this print advertisement because they’ve seen their friends or people smoking in front of them. Besides that, people must know the color of cigarette (white and orange) and hospital bed to read this print advertisement correctly. Deathbed is constructed in a brilliant way because it uses realism and common sense in it. It shows if one man smokes, there is a high possibility of dying earlier than a man not smoking. Smoking will brings serious diseases which infects health badly to smokers. For pregnant mothers, smokes will cause abnormal growth of fetus and the fetus will be born as an incomplete baby.

The reason of Deathbed is published is to makes more people to support the anti-smoking campaign around the globe. However, not every people will read this advertisement in the way creator does. Some people might think alternately, maybe they will think this is a new type of hospital bed or perhaps cleanliness of a patient room. It depends on people in various thinking. Each individual will thinks differently vary from the angles or perspective they stand. This can be an isolated room, not a patient room. This also can be a room in a mental illness center. Quarantine situation might appeal also. A single bed represents the loneliness? This can be true too.

The rate of smoking in the world is increasing every minute. Almost 20 percent of world populations are smokers. 1 out of 5 people will be a smoker. This is a dangerous level. Because of the fast increment of smokers, it influences the world anti-smoking organizations to create more anti-smoking campaign to raise awareness of public to cigarette. The campaigns created will make the smokers to quit smoking slowly; hence the number of smokers will be decreases. What if some people misread the meaning of Deathbed? This problem won’t exist because the aims of Deathbed will remains the same unless one day the design of hospital bed changed to other shape and colors, or maybe the cigarette is not longer cigarette, it’s in another color and form. At the time, all the anti-smoking campaign including Deathbed will not working anymore. They will need a new campaign then. Anyway, Deathbed probably won’t have any influence on smokers who does not have symptoms of lung diseases or cancer. These people are not afraid of this campaign because they have not attempted the feeling of sick and helpless. But, in more or less, it will influence those people with symptoms. This group of people mostly near to death and they have the determination to quit the smoking habit. On personal values, self conscious and self discipline will be related to this print advertisement.

Semiotic theory is compatibles in Deathbed. Few signs are found in this advertisement. A sign is the association of signifier and the signified according to Saussure. The signification is the process of the association. Pierce had three important types of signs which are symbol, index and icon. Deathbed, hospital bed itself is a sign. The bed is an icon to a bed. The function of the bed is to let people rest on it. Hospital bed can be the symbol of patient. The bed also indicates hospital, illness. It denotes an object for patient in the hospital to lie down and it connotes the patient’s serious disease and in bad condition; it can be lung diseases or heart diseases. Other criteria might be applied to rank these three forms differently. Different people will judges the advertisement in many ways. People might think it denotes surgery is in operation and connotes to accident happened.

Peirce and Saussure the famous two semiotician have different interpretation of symbol and icon. Saussure refused to refer the symbol to arbitrary linguistic signs while Peirce’s idea is symbol is a general idea that refers to the original object. The wheel is another sign. Wheel indicates that the thing is moveable. The bed can be move here and there, so this is the denotation. It connotes to unstable condition of the patient or an unexpected event is going to happen soon. This signified the patient is at the edge of his life. Other than that, bed frame in this advertisement is a sign too. The texture is stainless steel. The frame itself together with the bed indicates that this is a hospital bed. Without the frame, the bed will be like a common bed. Some people might just think it is a mattress with white cloth on it. The frame denotes to a strong bed frame while the connotation of it is the stable and strong frame is supporting the weak patient. Pillow on the bed is a sign like the bed frame, it indicates relax and rest and can be denotes to sleep. But somehow, if we think in other way, in connotation, it’s related to rest in peace. Example, the pillow links to dead people lying or resting forever in a coffin. The important sign in Deathbed is the color of the bed. The color of the bed is the color of the cigarette, thus it is a symbol of cigarette. It has a special connotation meaning. Smoking will get you on hospital bed some day; the color of the bed is like a complete cigarette, when a cigarette is burned out, all it left is filter. So when the blanket fully covers the patient, the bed is completely in orange color, means the patient is dead. Plain white background of this advertisement can be signifying emptiness and loneliness. It denotes to an empty and lonely space. In connotation, it is a lonely patient is waiting to cure one day and also smoking will make you lose everything and at the end you have nothing left.

Assignment 2 Slides

Written Report

Written Report

“Malaysian Anti Smoking Commercial Quit Smoking Now Current” is an advertisement for the campaign “Tak Nak!” in Malaysia. This advertisement’s intended audience is more focus on the smokers but also for the public. The main message of this advertisement is to tell those smokers to quit smoking and for those who did not smoke, do not ever try it. The advertisement showed different side effects which cause by smoking to warn the audience. The audiences have to understand the side effects of smoking in order to understand the advertisement. Besides that, the audiences also have to have the experience of being with the family in order to understand the advertisement because the love and care of family is often called upon and showed in the advertisement. The advertisement was trying to say that, smoking will hurt yourselves and also will break your family heart. This advertisement greatly reflect the dominant cultural values, smoking is often seen as a bad habits in the society. Although this advertisement is good and touched a lot of people hearts, but it did not create much influence to the reality. The number of people smoking is still increasing and the age of people start smoking is even decreasing.

The advertisement starts with a back shot. Blue colour tone and the wet floor indicate that the weather is cool and gloomy. All these are indexes, it makes everything looks so down. A shot slowly zooming in from a dark room. The silhouette of two people sitting on a bench can be seen from the narrow door. This opening shot creates the sign of loneliness of that two people. They are waiting for somebody in front of the hospital. The ambulance past by has symbolized the location of the first scene without the need of showing the view of hospital. The scene is cut to a close-up on the floor, showing the moving of legs which symbolizes the uneasiness. "My mother. ", the kid sitting in between the camera and the teenager answered. Teenager replied, "Me too." while he is looking at the little kid. His viewing is clearly shown by the straight line shot of the camera. Audience eyes are leaded to the little kid since he is sitting in between the camera and the teenager. People start to look at him. Then, a close up shot is taken at the little kid look to the camera. His sad expression is a sign that he is scared and worried about something. Something seems to be wrong.

The part from 0:15 to 0:54 seconds in the video shows a patient which is a heavy smoker, has to cut off one of his leg to keep up his life. At 0:15s onwards, a lamp lights up in a dark room and someone is using a marker pen to draw on the patient’s skin. Soon after that, we can see an electrical saw and some surgery equipments on a table. At this point, we can conclude that scene is a surgery room. The light and the marks are indexical signs. The light and the marks are denotation of a bright and inks respectively. But the connotation of the light in surgery room is there is an operation to be held, while for the marks, its represent the spot will be removed. Denotation for electrical saw is chopping something off and the connotation is the patient’s leg is decayed, he have to get rid of his leg. The stomach bulged lady is a symbol denoting to pregnant, in the mean time it’s also connotation of mom and dad. Under normal circumstances, a woman who has a bloat stomach and married is pregnant. This is the interpretive code often used by many peoples.

After that, the kid and an old man appear in the scene. Then we saw the patient, from her eyes, it carry the sign that she was happy with the presence of both of them. It symbolize that she is waiting for them. Camera pans down and shows her mouth to the audience. This is an icon of mouth disease. It is also an index which indicates that she is suffering from the disease. Besides, her tooth and mouth also tell the audience about the sign of pain and suffering. The female tried very hard to talk to her child but she is unable to deliver it to the child, because her voice is damaged. This symbolize that the love of the mother. Unfortunately, her child tried to look away from her. The child body language symbolizes the fear of him. This scene was shot in a low camera angle to enhance the sadness mood. The child keep shaking his head, audience know that he is scared by his mum because the little boy unable to accept what happened to his mother. The mother made a hand signal to both of them. This indicates she wants her son to go to her side. The little boy took the card from his mother. The nurse beside the mother smiled to the child and said, "She said she loves you". The old man dropped his tears which symbolize that he is touched by the love of the mother. The child nods his head is a sign that he accept what happened to his mother. It is a symbol of acceptance, it denotes that the child can face his mother, and connotes that the child is a brave boy and love his mother.

At 1:56, the scene shows that the patient wake up and pulled up the blanket and looked at his leg. One of his legs is gone. This is a sign. The condition of the patient is a symbol of diseases caused by smoking. It denotes to the meaning of disease and connotes the meaning of suffering. Besides that, the condition of him also indicates that he is a smoker. It denotes that he smoke too much and caused him to lose his legs, connotes that he is a person who is not responsible for his health. The wife at beside comfort him that they are lucky. The verbal text spoken is a kind of sign. This symbolize that the wife did not hate or complain at his husband. This connotes that the wife loves his husband and is an optimistic person. The husband then nods his head; this gesture is also a sign. A symbol of agreeing at what his wife said. Nodding the head denotes the meaning of agree, and in this advertisement, it connotes that he agree what his wife said and feel glad that he did not lose his life.

At 2:28, the cigarette on the floor is an icon of the cigarette. It denotes to the meaning of cigarette. The connotation meaning is that the cigarettes are tempting and create curiosity to the youngster. Reaching the end of the video, the mother (nurse) told her son "Don't break my heart". Here we can see the expression of the mother which shows a symbol. The symbol represents the soreness and disappointment of the mother. After that the video focuses on the son's expression. The expression is a symbol showing that the son is regret of his action, it denotes the feeling of regret of the son, and connotes that the son is actually a good kid who love his mother. Then the scene showed the son smashed the cigarette and throw it in the dustbin. This indicate that the son decide not to smoke. The cigarette throwing into the dustbin also is a symbol that telling the audience not to smoke. It connotes the meaning to the audience that smoking is bad, and we should stop it right away.

As a conclusion, this advertisement is to influence the citizens on the impact of smoking towards health. All it takes for the audience to believe in the advertisement is the experience and the ability to recognize the things that are being shown in the scenes of the advertisement. We can see that the director imply pain and suffering by using symbols, index, icon, denotation and connotation in most of the scenes. The director wants to show how strong love is compared to a cigarette. How love can overcome pain and suffering. So the love of family is often called upon and showed up in the advertisement. The advertisement successes to tell the audience that smoking will hurt not just hurt you but also affect the family. What the director did in this advertisement was to make the audience receive the message of pain, suffering and love and then warn them not to smoke. The director imply all kinds of sign in order to create this message, including the props, mise en scene, actors’ expression and actors’ body language. All these things create signs and keep on deliver the message of side effects of smoking to the audience which in turn make this advertisement create a big impact.

Assignment 1: Shot-By-Shot Breakdown Of The Advertisement:

Malaysian Anti Smoking Commercial Quit Smoking Now Current
(Running time 3:02 minutes)

Here is a shot-by-shot breakdown of the advertisement:

Shot Number	Screen Image	Audio/text	Summary
1		Ambulance siren sound	A shot slowly zoom in, showing two people sitting on the bench. An ambulance passes by.
2		“You’re waiting someone?”	Cut to a close-up of on the floor showing the shoes.
3		“My mother.” “…me too.”	Cut to a scene showing two of the kids talking to each other.
4			Close-up as the little kid look to the camera.
5		Heart rates monitor beeping. Patient breathing sound.	Cut to a scene showing the patient. Focus from blur to clear.
6 - 11		Heart rates monitor beeping. Patient breathing sound.	Several scenes showing that the patient is undergoing an operation.
12		Sound of operation tool.	The operation tool on.
13		Sound of operation tool.	The scene first show an injured foot, then slowly the operation tool move down.
14		Sound of flesh cutting and blood splashing.	Close-up scene of the patient’s expression.
15			Cut to a scene showing the breathing bag. A woman is beside the patient.
16		Patient breathing. “No. Don’t do that.”	The patient trying to take off the breathing mask. His wife stopped him.
17		“Forgive me.”	The camera shot over the wife’s shoulder. The patient takes off the mask and talk to his wife.
18			The wife nods her head.
19		“Forgive daddy.”	The scene slowly moves to the bottom, showing that the wife is pregnant. And the patient apologizes to the baby.
20			The wife looks down at her baby.
21			Cut to the close-up of the patient’s expression again.
22 -24			Close-up of the wife looking outside. A nurse standing outside and smiles to her. Cut back to the scene of the wife.
25			Change to another scene showing another place in the hospital. The scene could see the nurse and another patient.
26			Cut to a scene showing the little kid which appear in shot number 3 grabbing an old man hand.
27		“Aaaah.”	Close-up of the female patient turns her head. The shot slowly pan down and focus on her mouth. She said something.
28			Cut to the scene showing the back of the little kid. The kid turns away his head.
29		“Aaaah.”	Close-up scene of the female patient’s mouth. She is calling the kid.
30		“Mommy’s calling”	The old man tells the kid that his mother is calling him. The kid shakes his head.
31		“Go on. Don’t be scared”	The old man pampers the kid, but the kid refuses. But after a while, the kid turns his head and look at his mother. The mother is waving her hand to call her son come over.
32			The kid received the card from his mother.
33			Close-up of the mother’s expression.
34		Text in the card. (Happy Birthday, Shawn. Mommy misses you. Hope You Have A Really Great Day.	The kid opens up the card.
35		“Aaaahhhh.”	The kid reads the card and look at his mother when his mother talked something to him.
36		“Aaaaahhhhh.”	Close-up of the mother talk about something. (Not clear)
37		“Aaaahhh.”	The kid can’t get what his mother said and look at his grandfather.
38		“Aaaahh.” “She said, she loves you.”	The mother trying hard to say something to her son. The nurse help the mother to say what she is trying to say.
39			The kid looks at his mother.
40		“I love you.” (In an unclear voice.)	The mother continues to say she loves him.
41			Cut to the shot of the grandfather feels touched and looks at the kid.
42			The kid nods his head.
43			The scene cut to another patient. The nurse walks towards the patient.
44		“Are you hungry?”	The wife of the patient talks to him.
45		“I brought some food.”	The wife stands up while talking.
46		“You want to eat?”	The scene cut to the back of his wife and the shot is at the patient. The patient gets up from his bed.
47			The patient pulls the blanket up. The nurse is looking from beside.
48			The patient pulls up the blanket and looks at his legs. One of his legs is gone.
49			The scene then focused on the patient’s expression.
50		“My leg…it’s gone.”	The patient lie back on his back and said something with regrets.
51		“Yes…but you’re still here.” “We’re lucky.”	The wife comforts him.
52			The patient nods his head and agree.
53			The scene cut to the nurse smiling.
52			The scene cut to another location. Another nurse said goodbye to that particular nurse. Then that particular nurse takes her bag and walk out of the scene.
53			The scene cut to the little boy walking out of the hospital and passed through the youngster that appeared in shot number 3.
54			The youngster looks at the floor and bends down.
55			The scene shows that there is a box of cigarette on the floor.
56			The youngster looks left and right.
57			A close-up shot of the youngster picking up the cigarette.
58		“Ma…”	The youngster put the cigarette in his pocket. The nurse appears from behind and saw everything. The youngster saw his mother and walks towards her.
59		“Don’t break my heart.”	The scene change to the youngster hand over the helmet to his mother. The shot slowly move up and shoot on his mother. His mother takes over the helmet and said something to him.
60			The mother walks away from the scene. The youngster looks at his mother.
61		“SMOKING CAUSES LUNG CANCER, MOUTH CANCER, GANGRENE AND OTHER FATAL DISEASES.”	The scene change to his mother walks away alone. Then the youngster’s hand appeared in the scene holding the box of cigarette. The youngster smashes the cigarette and walks towards his mother. Text appeared.
62		“SMOKING DESTROYS LIVES”	The scene change to black and with some text appeared.
63		“QUIT NOW! SMOKING DOESN’T PAY” “INFOLINE BERHENTI ROKOK, 03-8883440”	The text changed and some logos appeared at the bottom.