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 Light My Lucky

R Scholes, N.R Comley And G.L Ulmer

About writer and Essay :

R Scholes, N.R Comley and G.L Ulmer were a professors at English at Brown, CUNY and Florida respectively. 'Light my Lucky' is an advertisement about a cigarette 'lucky strike'. This essay has a very interesting way of advertisement of cigarette.

Main Idea of Light My Lucky

This essay shows how commercial advertisements mislead the people and how important it is for the consumers to make a critical watch of the ads. Here, they describe a promotional advertisement of a cigarette named 'Lucky Strike' and how the designers of the ad try to mislead the people showing symbolic and metaphorical connections of the cigarette with health, beauty and sexuality instead of the health hazards. The ad does not tell it directly but it is implied by the perfectly healthy and beautiful image of a young lady in the ad. Such ads make the meaning unconsciously in the mind of the consumers.

Summary of light my lucky

In this essay, the writers would like to describe an advertisement for the cigarettes named 'Lucky Strike' because they find the ad cleverly designed, technically perfect and attractive to allure the consumers. On the surface, the ad is simple. It presents a photo of a beautiful young woman perhaps 23/4 years old in a sweater wearing a scarf with one hand in her pocket and the other resting lightly on her windblown hair, holding an unlighted cigarette. She is looking straightly with somehow sexy looks. The words 'Light My Lucky' appear in quotation marks below her chin. In the lower right corner, there is a large image of an opened package of the cigarette. At the bottom, there is a well-known warning from a surgeon which says 'Smoking by pregnant woman may result in fetal injury, premature birth, and low weight.'


Now if we look at the advertisement on the deeper level, we find that the designers have used many techniques in it. They have been able to underestimate the warning and they are focusing on the consumption of the cigarette. The picture obviously focuses on the beautiful and healthy woman who has not lighted the cigarette but she is saying 'light my Lucky'. She seems to be in the outdoor environment. So there is somehow a metonymic connection between the woman, emotion, outdoors and cigarette. By showing such positive, attractive, and healthy woman, the makers of the ad want to minimize the unhealthy effect of cigarette smoking. They want to attach healthy values on the mind of the consumers subconsciously.

The words 'Light My Lucky' is the use of intertextuality, showing two or more meanings by the same phrase. Here, on the literal level, she tells us to light her cigarette named Lucky. But on the deeper metaphorical level, it is like saying 'Light My Fire' or light my emotion as it is used in rock songs. So the makers of the ad want to connect the cigarette with beauty, health and emotional pleasure. Secondly, the word 'light' is a pun with a double meaning. On the surface, it tells us to set on fire, or light her cigarette, but in the deeper level, it is arousing her fired emotions. At the same time, the word 'light' also means less risky and free from bad ingredients as we say in 'light beer' or 'light cigarette' even to the health conscious people.


Lastly, the health warning also ignores the health hazards on the general public because it indicates only the pregnant women. The warning from the surgeon shows the connection among smoking, pregnancy and ill health, but the ad shows the connection among smoking, beauty, sexuality, outdoor adventure and good health. The idea that smoking is unhealthy is shadowed by the other attractive messages. So this is extremely clever and a well-made advertisement.