Kairos in Contemporary Smoking Commercial

Kairos may very well be the most important rhetorical argument someone can make. It goes a step further than analyzing the piece, it breaks down how the moment in time affects the significance. Smoking in America is a particularly interesting topic because over the span of 60 years, there has been a large shift in how the media has portrayed this dangerous act. To be fair, scientific knowledge plays a large role in this. It wasn't until 1964 that the first study by the U.S Surgeon General came out criticizing cigarettes. This may offer insight into ads earlier in the century claiming doctors recommend smoking. They simply didn't know any better. In the year 1970, it became illegal to advertise cigarettes and this began the steady decline of the percent of the population that smoked but more importantly the image of smoking. More and more anti-cigarette commercials were being released and they were receiving much praise. The government even started a popular campaign sponsored by the Office of National Drug Control Policy that is widely known as Above The Influence. Many schools made it a requirement in their Health education classes to teach the harms of smoking and show shocking videos of the harmful affects smoking has had on people. Most people born in the 90's can say they've witnessed an educational video that showcased people with their voice box removed, people on their deathbed, etc. due to smoking. With this in mind, the commercial "The Real Cost: '#7000chemicals'" can be seen as a very realistic ad against smoking. It uses intimidating imagery such as the nighttime setting, and an army of ghoulish looking monsters all headed towards one boy to almost say, "We want to scare the cigarette out of the teenagers hand." Its working too. Since this common form of anti-cigarette commercials became popular, smoking in teens is the lowest its been in 22 years. 

-Mihrete Samuel