Advertisement and Culture

I was given an ad that encourages parents to take action about their kids or the youth in general and their smoking habits. 

The advertisement is clearly giving parents that are struggling with understanding the teenagers tendency to smoke cigarettes,  advice. 

Although the picture of the ad gives off an image of calmness and understanding, of patience and consideration , the urgency hovers beneath the letters that talk about how communicating with your kids will make them talk, perhaps even open up.

Seeing an ad like that tells me that there definitely have to be some issues in our society that are critical enough for someone to make the effort of creating an ad for that, a help line and address to contact for help and advice . Smoking is a serious health issue if neglected and used to the point were addiction is inherent.

The problem is that many parents prefer to blame "society" and the "media" , whereas their kids and the parents are society themselves and all the other parents blaming them are being blamed as well. The media is just a reflection of society, a mere copy that enhances its flaws. 

When culture comes into this, its not as much religion but more the general laws of society that inflict smoking and turn it into a trend, rather than giving it the respect and avoidance it should have. 

It is used as a way to bond with certain cliques or communities, a way to find a "secure" place of belongingness and a few quick smokes behind a building to impress some friends can quickly turn into a life long habit that has permanent health and mental consequences.

However, instead of blaming anything and anyone but themselves, parents should take a step back and reflect on their parenting as well as the type of image they're conveying to their children or the youth in general. At the end of the day, its the adults who teenagers look up to and thus act on what they see. 

Often when suffering from mental illnesses or recent traumatic events, instead of opening up to someone trustworthy or using a healthy way to cope, many teenagers grab the cigarette because its the easiest way to relax and perhaps forget , for a few moments. So if your child feels the need to turn to a potential drug, rather than you , then maybe it is the parent who is to blame. The advertisement tries to convey that, subtly by suggesting that the parent or adult may spend some quality time with the affected teenager to really discuss what triggers their smoking habits and form a stronger bond. The picture of the adult with the little child in a boat, fishing amongst a calm sea is depicting the very idea of putting in some effort to try and understand the youth and their issues better.  Try your best to help them quit and find a better way to deal with whatever issues theyre dealing with. 

Teenagers are empowered , as the blame of them being corrupted is somewhat lifted off them and shifted to the adults. 

FOOTBALL PLAYERS VS DOCTORS (In critical areas > Ebola)

For this assignment we were asked to write a persuasive speech or editorial using pathos, logos, ethos and social progression techniques to support our claim.
I chose to write a speech on the payment as well as recognition that football players receive versus doctors , and how that should be criticised.

Football players VS  Doctors in critical situations (Ebola)
Looking at the qualities and concepts of both proffessions , one might question the relation between them . But really, however much they differ in purpose , that is the key concept of the argument.
Lets look at the facts : The requirements of getting into a football team are fairly simple tasks ; sugar coated expressions that lack in meaning and purpose. Such as the requirements listed below.
exceptional footballing talent
a competitive nature
self-discipline
commitment to improving your performance
excellent teamworking skills
a high level of fitness and stamina
the ability to cope with the stress of top matches
persistence and determination.  
Beautifully articulated, yet completely useless in terms of social benefit. That list right there is literally all you need to get yourself a position in a football team, apart from some medical forms and age requirements. Quite the simple job, and not a very long career either. Your level of education doesnt even matter all that much, as long as you have general knowldge on english and maths.
Now lets get to the juicy bit of this career. M O N E Y. F A M E. C O N N E C T I O N S.
Yeah they can all backfire, but from all the successful football players out there that hardly seems to be the case. When you open your newspaper, there's always going to be an entire section dedicated to.      
football, for all the fans to keep up with the players latest games , who won and who lost last night. And it doesnt just happen on those sections. Football is spreading and seeping into social networks, social media and even the front covers of magazines that arent even related to football.
Those players receive tons and tons of money, regardless wether their team even won or not, simply by running after a ball and dedicating a few years of their life to staying fit and healthy. When they're too old to play, they'll be financially stable and secured for at least a decade and still have the time to finish their education or switch their career to something else and enjoy their on lasting fame and public appreciation. Looking at it from that side, why should there be any negativity about it right? Its a great job that can be competitive and dissappointing at times but overall probably more enjoyable
than being a plumber.
Well, heres the twist. Currently the disease Ebola has been spreading even faster and more furiously than ever before. And at the end of the day, what is the main source of help needed for stopping Ebola? Money and educated, reliable, committed doctors who have persistance and determination as well as being in excellent health.  Notice anything? Both jobs have similar requirements, however the latter one actually has life or death on the table, while football teams will just lose and gain a new player. The people that volunteer to travel abroad to the affected countries located in west Africa such as Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leonne are risking their everything, ranging from family to their own life. They are mostly ambitious people with more or less knowldge on the treatment of Ebola as well as highly eduated people with a clear goal and intentions. They're faced with absolutely no payment whatsoever and traumatic experiences that they "technically" have no responsibilty over. Morally, we all should be doing as much as we can to help out the victims of Ebola, but no, that football game last night was more dramatic and important. Need some real drama? Try to live in the shoes of the
dedicated expats for at least an hour. They have to see people dying around them everywhere, like
flies being wiped out by insect spray, one by one. And it isnt pretty to watch, thats for one. The effects of Ebola are incredibly high fever, your internal organs being attacked and internal bleeding as well as experiencing an unquenching need for something liquid in your body. Touching an infected person is enough to transmit the disease and become a victim. Thats what those doctors and helpers are risking, as well as this immense feeling of guilt when more people dont make it than you wouldve hoped for initially. When you try your absolute best and go that extra mile at four am in the morning, just to be woken up roughly at six and find out he/she never made it . The medical camps can only hold so many people and are badly equipped, with patients living their last moments on some cheap garden chairs with scratchy blankets and the smell of death and blood surrounding you, suffocating everyones hopes. Imagine having to witness hundreds and hundreds of desperate crying
and screaming people that ALL need immediate medical as well as psychological attention , their hands grabbing after you , YOU being their only hope of survival and escape. And then having to
chose.Thats right, not everyone will be able to enter that camp and only the ones narrowed down with the
best chances of survival can. And not even that little section will fully make it into the camp or out of it alive. Imagine the cries, the tears and desperation in their voices as theyre being sent home, practically being sent to their own deaths. How it must feel to be the one to assign them to such a fate. And the worst of it all is that this issue can be solved. Theres a solution and its buried deep into the roots of poverty and lack of support from more fortunate countries. Ofcourse, many countries are worthy of praise with the amount of money that they sacrifice each year to those in need. All those charities and organizations are not in vain.
But what exactly is the point of trying to cure a deadly disease when there are so many others and
they all derive from the same countries for the same reasons. Why not try to eliminate those reasons in the first place? Teach the poor and uneducated on basic hygene, how to be secure in all physical aspects. Help them build cleaner cities and communities, enforce education and proper nutrition for as much people as possible. Those issues should be adressed primarily , before trying to tackle one out of many diseases that is taking its toll at the moment. Instead of giving football players a massive wage, support from all sides and lots of useful connections and fame, why not give that to the REAL heroes of today? Why not distribute it to the VICTIMS of today? Do they really need all that money and fame? Unless they are planning to donate it and do something useful with it, not really. Ofcourse one can not judge others and their decisions but these are serious errors that are being committed by the distributors and managers of money and its power. Take a minute to think of the possibilities that could actually be turned into real life success, if all of that excess money was donated to those in need, slowly but surely balancing out the worlds incredibly unjust distribution of rights.
People love a good game with loads of shouting and patriotism , team spirit and a good party about a pointless game of ball and shoot. This does sound offensive but no matter how much you turn this one, it is and will forever remain an utterly useless way to manipulate society into buying, watching and being distracted by other things. The market realizes that when people start to worry about critical issues that dont directly affect them, the demand significantly decreases and thus they bring in a handful of entertainment that is made to look incredibly vital for everyone to be aware of and pay attention to ; constantly. Everyone always knows something up to date about foot ball, but what about those workers that all died from Ebola in the past few months. What about their hard work and the lives they've saved?  Where is their well deserved income and public appreciation? Think about how you are contributing to the world with your actions, and try to appreciate the ones that actually deserve it. There is a solution to this issue , but one must act together and finally wake up , to see the corruption of how serious issues are being handled.
Thankyou for spending some of your time on this hopefully effective speech, coming from the  HELPPEOPLEINNEED.COM corporation.