TOW #3 "What Happens When A Smoker Quits" (Visual)

I decided to look at an infographic this week that was published by the American Cancer Society not too long ago. The infographic is a detailed yet concise timeline that briefly describes at every time period what happens when a smoker quits. The American Cancer Society is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. This gives some insight without even looking at the infographic what might be on it and what ideas they might be presenting.

The audience of this infographic is spreads from one end of the spectrum all the way down to the other. Of course this image primarily serves to incentivize smokers to quit and how beneficial it would be for them to do so even after not a long period of time. So the direct audience I would have to say would be any current smoker. A secondary audience for this infographic is anyone that has a family member, friend, or anyone in their life that they care about who smokes. It shows them how helpful quitting smoking can be for someone who smokes.

The biggest and most noticeable rhetorical device that is used in this visual is pathos. The only image used in the visual is a shriveled, used up cigarette that conveys a somber tone that parallels the feeling that cigarettes cause to smokers. For anyone who has a loved one who smokes this is something that they see on a daily basis, an used cigarette. That one small image is so powerful that to people that smoke, that little cigarette is the difference between their utmost health and an early death.

The interesting thing to note is that instead of the normal ads that just show the gruesome and horrible effects that cigarettes have, this one is the opposite. It shows what happens to people that stop smoking. The American Cancer Society has shifted their audience from people thinking about smoking or starting to smoke to people that have been smoking and smoke a lot in their lifetime. They recognize the fact that they need to motivate and emotionally drive cigarette smokers to stop. It's so easy to look at this infographic and see how easily obtainable those goals are.

(http://i.imgur.com/PGYDt67.jpg)