Final Draft


Be In Control

 

"The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own.  No apologies or excuses.  No one to lean on, no one to rely on, and no one to blame.  The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it.  This is the day your life really begins."  ~Bob Moawad~

     

What does being in control truly mean? What is taking a challenge? What is making a commitment? How do we stay in control, take a challenge, and be committed if there are numerous advertisements about alcohol, cigarettes, and other tobacco products that are calling our names to go against what is right? Drugs have become a problem in advertisement, and even though they are not exactly encouraged in the media, they are still advertised in the mouths of those around us. The common response one might hear if someone confronts another about being an alcoholic or addicted to a certain type of drug or cigarette is, “It’s my body, I can do what I want with it.” These advertisements do not help one bit because they show the consumers what they want to see and hear but they do not show the reality. They do not show the effects of smoking cigarettes or drinking that bottle of Grey Goose Vodka. They want to sell the product not scare you away with the truth. I will compare and contrast the alcohol and tobacco ads and how Above the Influence tears these ads apart.

 

Above the Influence is truly influential, it is a group that does a fine job helping people with these problems. They recognize that yes, we as teens do have many pressures and they are here to help us. They strive to show the reality that these alcohol and tobacco ads are hiding.  We don’t like when someone takes control over our lives, such as our parents telling us what to do or other friends bossing us around. If you do not like any one else in control of your life then why would you allow alcohol or drugs to take that control? Stay strong and do not let pressure get the best of you. This is your life, you make the decisions and as Bob Moawad said, “You alone are responsible for the quality of it.” Through their commercials they use much emotion and power to grab the viewers attention. In one of their commercials called, “Stagehands,” they show a number of teens at a party attached to strings, in which these strings are controlling them. This is showing that the alcohol is controlling these people. When we get drunk we are like puppets being controlled in everything we say and do. This is what Above the Influence is trying to show through this commercial. As the party goes on everyone attached to the strings fall to the ground and there are only a few teens left standing and these are the people who are truly Above the Influence. Through this commercial they use music that is appealing to the youth and this is what grabbed my attention when I found this ad on TV. At the end when everyone falls it is quite shocking because the commercial tends to ask us a question, “Do you want to be like him or her or do you want to be Above the Influence?” This is the whole idea of being in control; no one wants to be a puppet.

 

 

People need proof to why this is so bad for us, so that is when we bring out the facts. According to msnbc.com 75,000 people die from alcohol abuse every year and it shortens their life by thirty years. Some might say, “Well I don’t drink everyday, I only get drunk like once a week.” When we are not in control and we can not take this life anymore we may turn to alcohol; getting drunk once a week turns into getting drunk twice a week, then three times a week, and then eventually everyday. Abuse does not happen over night it is something that is built up and then finally explodes to something worse and that is death. According to thetruth.com, tobacco kills 1200 people every day. This is not a joke, imagine, 1200 people dying everyday is 438,000 people in one year and in two years nearly 1,000,000 people will be dead. These facts are what these alcohol and tobacco ads do not show. They do not show people dying, they show people laughing, having fun, and living life. That is what I am going to explain, where the ads are hiding the reality.

 

First I would like to look at the different alcohol and tobacco ads that are being shown to the world. The first ad I would like to analyze is the Grey Goose Vodka ad. The slogan alone even hides us from the reality, “Where the Goose goes, the night will follow.” This can be taken in many different ways. What they are trying to say is, “Hey drink our stuff and you will definitely get it in.” They do not come out and say it but it is shown in their ads. There are men and women kissing and drinking and simply going with the world’s most common definition of ‘fun’. They constantly talk about this ‘night’? Where is it taking us? Well this night will not be too much fun once you get pulled over for driving under the influence, it will not be fun once you enter into your home and you realize that your wife is waiting for you and wondering where you have been, it will not be fun the next morning when you can barely get up, which causes you to miss work and potentially lose your job. Is alcohol the importance of life?

 

 

Tobacco is also of no help. There are more people dying of tobacco use then of alcohol. As you can see the two ads above, smoking is the cool thing to do. Something these ads constantly use are women and that is how they will sell their product because they make the consumer believe that if they buy their product they will get women and they will be considered cool! For example, the first ad’s slogan is, “Blow in her face and she will follow you anywhere!” Are you kidding me? On top of that they actually show the man blowing in this highly good, looking woman’s face. The second ad shows that smoking is cool, affordable, it has a delicate taste and fragrance, and smoking is believing. These tobacco ads show two things, women and being cool. If you want to be cool then you should smoke and women like cool guys who smoke because they will follow you anywhere. This is what these two ads are portraying and this is the lie it is telling America.

 

 

This is not reality, not the laughs, the sex or the women. Alcohol is no joke. This brings us back to the topic of control, if you cannot control your drinking than do not do it because it is only going to cause more and more problems. The ads are hiding the facts. Cigarettes may cause cancer, they blacken your lungs and teeth, and to my knowledge, smoking cigarettes is like planning your own funeral. Once again people use the excuse, “Life is short, we are going to die anyway.” Why wouldn’t you want to live as long as you could? Don’t you want to see your kids get married or even yourself get married? Don’t you want to be an uncle/aunt or grandpa/grandma? The over usage of Tobacco takes your life away and similar to alcohol it destroys you, not over night but in time you will crumble and fall into your own grave. What is more important, your pleasure or your life?

 

 

Where does Above the Influence come in? Above the Influence takes these ads and puts life in a whole new perspective. If you are not in control, who is? Such a great question. If we must be in control, we must take that risk and say NO! At times we are scared, we are scared to tell our friends that you only want one glass of wine and not ten or you don’t want that blunt. We are afraid of what others will think of us. Well I tell you who cares what others think. When you are on your deathbed do you really think those people are going to be there, with you, holding your hand? If people cared about you they would respect that one glass of wine is okay or you don’t need the blunt or cigarette. It is all about whom we surround ourselves with and it’s about being focused and never losing control.

 

What is my point? Being in control, taking that risk and challenge, and making the commitment is what we are living for. I did not write this paper to be against alcohol and tobacco but to say that when things are done in moderation and when we donot abuse what we have we tend to be in control. When that cigarette begins to control your life and you depend on it and youare spending every bit of your money to buy that pack that is when the line has been crossed. When you come home from work or school and the first thing you do is head over to the liquor cabinet and you drink your problems and stress away that is when the line has been crossed. Be in control of yourself and do not depend on anything in life other than the people who love and care for you. Alcohol and tobacco may give us a little ease and happiness but this is only temporary and we go back to the sad and gloomy life the next day, but living above the influence is realizing that what truly makes us happy is being in control of our lives and when someone has figured this out thisis when they have unlocked the secret of life and have lived it to its full potential.

 


 

 

  

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited: 

 

AbovetheInfluence.com. (n.d.).AbovetheInfluence.com. Retrieved October 1, 2011, from http://abovetheinfluence.com/

 

Alcohol linked to 75,000 U.S. deaths a year - Health - Addictions - msnbc.com. (n.d.).msnbc.com - Breaking news, science and tech news, world news, US news, local news- msnbc.com. Retrieved October 1, 2011, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6089353/ns/health-addictions/t/alcohol-linked-us-deaths-year/

 

Quitting ain't Easy | thetruth.com. (n.d.). Quitting ain't Easy | thetruth.com. Retrieved October 1, 2011, from http://www.thetruth.com/