Alcohol advertisements give male customers the illusion of success.
Taking this advertisement as an example, instead of foregrounding the whisky, the advertisement uses most of the space to demonstrate a wealthy, successful, and elegant man. The whisky only appeal at the lower left corner. This entire advertisement seems not about the whisky, but about how successful and awesome a male customer can be while consuming it. It creates an illusion, making the costumers to think that to a successful man, whiskey is part of life.Cigarette ads appeal to people's desire for spiritual or mental freedom.
Just like the alcohol advertisements, this Marlboro ad is sending the message that anyone can enter the kingdom of freedom, feeling as free as these two in the ad, as long as they smoke Marlboro. Everyone has a Western cowboy dream, which is what exactly this ad takes advantage of. It appeals to customers' pursuit of freedom, and it can potentially attract non-smoking teenagers to start smoking.
