Campaign Poster Analysis No.2

This poster was created by the NHS, nation health service, in order to put off the public from continuing on smoking. Smoking is a very dangerous habit which is increasingly popular within older teens.

The poster has a very particular target audience which is to both young and old teens. This is obvious when we see a young girl, who looks about 17 or 18, being 'hooked' on cigarettes. The girls skin looks almost bruised and discoloured making her seem very weak and ill. This is an unattractive look and also unsettling for the public who are viewing which would have been the NHS's aim. Further more, she almost looks emotionless and drained of all her liveliness and happiness, showing the effects of being hooked on cigarettes. The girl has not been made to look beautiful or joyous because that would not fit the criteria of what the NHS 'smoke free' campaign wants.

The most striking thing about this campaign which really grasps your attention is the fishing hook that is pierced through the girls lip. This is a very unnerving image which almost sends a shiver through your spine as you glance at the image. You are able to see the exact point where the very sharp hook enters her lip which makes the link between the image and the smoking seem very punishing and cruel and thus, off putting to the audience.

There are no uplifting or vibrant colours used on the page because the whole idea being the 'smoke free' campaign is to make smoking seem like a very undesirable habit and make people stop as soon as possible and somehow get into a stage of realisation of how bad smoking is for them. The main house colours used are dark greens, blues and greys; all of which have no positive connotations.
The only text used on the page is the logo for the NHS and the campaign 'smoke free', and the 2 lines of text used to catch the readers attention and put across the hard hitting message. The first line states a distressing fact that 'the average smoker needs over five thousand cigarettes a year'. This seems almost unbelievable but really puts the habit of smoking into perspective for the audience reading the poster. Using the word 'average' means that the figure of '5 thousand' relates to every smoker in some way which is a very clever technique to use.

The second line of text uses a word link to the image on the poster. It says 'Get unhooked. Call 0800169 0 169 or visit getunhooked.co.uk'. The word 'unhooked' is repeated twice in this line of text making it the most prominent part of the poster as it relates to the girl having a fish hook attached to her lip. It gives quite a harsh idea of the issue of being hooked to smoking but this is want the campaign wants, and also what it needs. The use of 'shock' from the image is what makes this poster stick in the publics mind. The use of the word 'unhooked' also gives us more of an idea of what the target audience is as it is addressing the people who are already smokers, not those who are considering starting. Contact details of how to get help are also used in this line of text which will help people in the process of getting 'unhooked'.