Hipsters and the Genetically Privileged Deserve to Die

Source: theinspirationroom.com 

Source: coloribus.com

One day while waiting at a train station I saw a poster that had a sentence with such large fonts that I was able to read it from the station across mine. The sentence went "Hipsters deserve to die." Which was all I was able to read from where I stood. The next day I remembered that poster and researched it on the internet.

These two posters are for the Lung Cancer Alliance. They are quite famous because of the strong and odd statements present on them. The posters serve as a good example to show how language is used by Public Service Announcements to attract people's attention. They use a short sentence that is in big sized letters which comically states certain kinds of people (hipsters or the genetically privileged), deserve to die. This short and strong sentence is enough to gain the public's attention, after someone looks at it for some time they will find a paragraph placed right next to that sentence in a much smaller sized font clarifying and explaining what the announcement is about. The posters for the Lung Cancer Association are trying to raise people’s awareness about the cancer. In the poster it states that  “it doesn’t discriminate” personifying cancer, meaning that no person is immune to it. Once the person visits the website they are presented with the facts and the message of the campaign, that is even though lung cancer is the deadliest cancer, it has the least funding for research from the government. The main literary device of this poster is the use of a short sentence which is extremely effective in gaining people’s attention. Even if people do not stop, if they are simply walking by it, the sentence is short enough that they are able to read and odd enough to make them curious to the point that they are likely to later research about it.

The effectiveness of short sentences is very important for public service announcements since they are meant to quickly inform and raise awareness about a certain issue. These posters for the Lung Cancer Alliance are a good example. They gain attention and are fast, while at the same time have a hint of comedy, a combination bound to gain a lot of attention from the public. Therefore accomplishing its objective of reaching to as many different people as possible. The only issue with the poster is that its main message, or what it is trying to raise awareness to, is not present in the poster. There is no sentence which says that lung cancer although the deadliest, has the least amounts of funding. For people to get that information they are forced to visit the website, but the posters compensate this downside by making the audience curious enough that the probability of them visiting the website is much higher.