"Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States. It causes many different cancers as well as chronic lung diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis, heart disease, pregnancy-related problems, and many other serious health problems," according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). In this age smoking has become a very typical thing to do amongst people of all ages and both genders. One can see it being advertised everywhere from watching someone do it on TV to standing right next to someone smoking, or driving past a billboard. Those who smoke are putting themselves at risk of dying from all the possible diseases that come from smoking. The question is why would one want to take such a risk and play with his life, since smoking is bad for the body and will eventually kill you. The reason why so many people do it, is because not everyone that smokes knows the risks that come with it, and that is why Public Service Announcements (PSA) exist, to inform the public about serious issues that effect people today. In the PSA ad about smoking there is a young man that looks like a corpse with a cigarette in his mouth, as a representation of what will happen to one that smokes, through the messages of the "need for guidance" and the "need to feel safe" (Fowles 142-147), the creators of this advisement successfully motivates its viewers, through serious information to stay away from smoking.
Advertising expert and University of Houston professor Jib Fowles in his assay "Advertising's Fifteen Basic Appeals" says that "an advertising message contains something primary and primitive, an emotional appeal, that in effect is the thin end of the wedge, trying to find its way into our mind" (138). One might not fully realize that an advertisement is influencing one in so many ways. Advertisements influence one's choices and can make one do and decide something based on what one sees or has previously seen in the advertisement.