The startling image from the cancer society depicts a child seemingly suffocating from a plastic bag over his head; from a distance at least. But as we zoom in closer, the plastic bag is only the shape and the content is smoke, and the words below appear to be "Smoking isn't just suicide. It's murder." Luckily for us, the readers, the text on the image is the main message the artist wants to get across, but sometimes words need visual help to get the message across. By choosing to show the message through contrast, childhood references, underlying messages and emotion, the artist was able to support the text.

The most visually obvious trait to this image is the choice is displaying opposites. The contrast between subject and background. In terms of lighting, the background is a solid black while the subject, the boy is pale and bright. The contrast alone supports the theme because by choosing dark verses light, the artist meant this to portray life verses death. Death is being naturally portrayed by the dark background and life by the little boy himself. The text says that smoking is murder, so what is it murdering? The contrast emphasizes the subject of the ad.

The next supporting factor is the shape the smoke takes around the boy's head. The smoke takes shape of what we as the audience can assume to be a plastic bag. This indication refers back to what we learned as children. As a general "no-no" we learned to never put plastic bags over our heads, and it helps that there is warning label on anything and everything packaged to help remind us just in case we forget. We were taught that we could suffocate, lose air, and face a very fatal consequence. Having the little boy be portrayed as life and the smoke as a plastic bag that is a contributor in a form of death, the artist achieved the goal of "Smoking isn't just suicide. Its murder" almost too obviously. The smoke is blatantly suffocating the boy- the smoke is murdering his life.

But as we look deeper into this image, we see that the artist hit almost every aspect of the contributors and consequences of smoking. As we look closer, the boy is young and cannot escape the smoke. By this the artist also referred to second hand smoking. As young children it's hard to avoid anything really because we're guided in everything we do. Avoiding cigarette smoke, especially if it is within your own home is something that a child unfortunately cannot escape.  As we continue to look deeper we see that this is an ad for children against cancer. Not only does this ad raise awareness for smoking as a form of death but also for cancer awareness. It's a stretch to say that this ad raises awareness for both death and cancer since they always almost go hand in hand, but there is a difference as fine as it may be. The image is specifically targeting how smoke leads to cancer and how cancer will lead to death.

But no message is truly received if it does not result in some kind of emotion. All the previous mentioned inferences contribute to how the artist chose discomfort, anger and dissatisfaction as the emotions that we take from the image. Having the subject be a young boy was the main contributor to our human emotions. Being young took part to the emotion of innocence. Having that innocence be crying and helpless left the audience with discomfort. As humans, we cannot help but want to help a crying child by raising our voices, speaking softly and asking what's wrong. What if the boy was a man being suffocated by smoke? We certainly would not feel the same way and would change our mindset into not wanting to help, but maybe scold. Because a man is certainly capable of making his own decisions. What's so powerful about this particular image is that it leaves us angry that we can't help the specific boy because it is only a picture. It has us wanting to grab the bag of smoke off his head and wipe his tears away. This image wants us to help. It makes us want to do something to help this crying child. It leaves us dissatisfied.

By drawing us in with the strong contrast in subject and background, by making us realize the plastic bag was actually smoke, and by making us viewers feel nothing but negative emotions, and because the last thing it left us with us was wanting to help or do something, the artist achieved his goal in delivering his message. How do we help and prevent murders caused by smoke? How do we help the boy? We simply stop smoking.
