Silk Cut Cigarette Sureal Adverts.

One of the things (from Monday lectures from Tracy) that stuck with me most is the example she gave us when she was talking about advertising. The example was Silk Cut cigarette surreal approach to marketing. This whole campaign was started solely because named Tabaco company advertisings was banned. Bellow I posted their first released advertisement.

This type of marketing amazes me and to me is a perfect example of visual language and visual metaphors in play. In the advert itself there is no reference to smoking, cigarettes, smoke or the company itself. In fact the only way one could tell that this is an advert for cigarettes is by reading the mandatory health warning attached to the advert. The image is just a result of world play of the brands name, while off course using the brands color scheme.Their other advertisement became a bit more complicated, but only to their own benefit since solving the riddle would bring a lot of positive emotions towards the brand itself. The advert that Tracy brought to our attention in the lecture and in a way formed my interest in the rest of the companies adverts out there was the visual metaphor for the phrase – The next best thing since sliced bread.

Their adverts also involved a lot of references to popular culture that a person would have associate in their own head. The bellow advert shows the famous shower scene from the ever so popular Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960’s movie Thriller “Psycho”. The association that comes to the viewer’s head instantly is the knife slashing threw the silk shower curtain. Hence yet again complimenting the viewer’s intelligence when they solve the riddle.
 

Their last advert released and most likely my very favorite one is another take on the visual metaphor. It portrays a woman singing while wearing the iconic silk dress with a cut in it. The metaphor isn’t hard to figure out, it’s a take on” “It’s not over until the fat lady sings” and given the fact that this is a company that advertises cigarettes it can be rather grim given the concept. 

The Silk Cut cigarette surreal approach to advertising is really interesting to me. Not only that they successfully managed to continue their advertisements solely using visual metaphors for their representation., but also that they found a way to keep advertising their product despite the ban that was present. They found a way around it.

The Silk Cut cigarette surreal approach to advertising is really interesting to me. Not only that they successfully managed to continue their advertisements solely using visual metaphors for their representation., but also that they found a way to keep advertising their product despite the ban that was present. They found a way around it. Also these adverts sort of play off on Semiotics as they use visuals to make the viewer associate the entire poster/advert into a singular message.