The influence of media

If you have watched the television the last month or last 2 weeks ago, you would have notice an advertisement which shows grody image of a mouth which is full of mouth ulcers which are filled with pus. Just in case you have not seen it, it was part of an anti-smoking campaign to discourage smokers where they show an image of a smoker addict's mouth.

Many viewers have mixed reaction towards the advertisement.

For me, i was quite stunned by the image as it makes people feel disgusted. It would surely take away one's appetite and perhaps even dampen one's spirits for the day. By showing that image, is it really effective in promoting anti-smoking? I once watched a television program that interviews people and ask them about their views on this. A parent who was interviewed said that after watching the image on television, both of her daughters started to have nightmares and dared not watch television for fear of seeing the grotesque image again. So is it really necessary to show such an image to promote anti-smoking? I feel that the media could have shown some statistics to prove that smoking is bad or they could interview some ex-smoker addicts and ask them to share their story on how smoking harms their health. In this way, the media is promoting anti-smoking without terrifying people.

However, from another point of view, there is a saying, “a picture speaks a thousand words “. It is known to most of us that using an image to portray out an idea is much more effective than using words and statistics as our brain tends to register images better than words and figures. There was once a television program that interviews a psychologist who said that an image can stay in a person's sub-conscious mind and will cause a change in the person's behavior or thinking. He stated an example which is after the "911" incident when the whole event was shown on television, many people became scared of taking plane for fear of terrorists. This shows how the media can influence the mass public and perhaps in this case, showing the gordy image may be the best way to ensure results for the anti-smoking campaign.