Week 5: Response to Visual Arguments, Question 4

In the "I am my anti drug" advertisements, there are multiple audiences that are targeted. The two main target audiences that apply to all of them are young people who may be intrigued to or willing to try drugs, and the general public as a whole. General public as a whole is pretty broad, but these advertisements seem to point a finger at people who are judging the character of the people in the advertisements before they can see what they are really about. The angle that these advertisements take with the people who may be intrigued by or willing to try drugs is one of support in deciding not to try, support in light of the fact that they may be misjudged at times. The posters are much more preventative in this way, but seem like they could also be somewhat effective with someone who is using drugs with language like "bunch of pot smoking slackers" and "drugged out loser" being a negative statement towards them.
The general public is targeted by these ads in a different way, they are targeted by showing pictures of people who may be stereotyped easily, but shown with the text that is correcting what may be mis-perceived. Words and phrases like "way off", "wrong", "my decision" and "are just wrong" are the stronger, bolder points here which would seem to possibly have subtle play in someones view of the characters in the advertisements.
The advertisement directly addresses young people who haven't yet used drugs, but could use some extra encouragement that they have made the correct choice. The invoked audience here is young people who may need to see some positive role models who aren't using drugs but are breaking down stereotypes. Each of the three advertisements has their strengths and weaknesses, the first one, titled "labeled:" seems like it could be pretty effective with a crowd of young males who feel like society gives them a cold shoulder and has certain negative expectations set out for them. The bolder text "just another" and "way off" stand out as good eye catchers to this point. The second advertisement titled "You scan me" seems wordier than the other two and uses a barcode in addition to the text. This is a good visual aid to the text and draws the eyes in to read. The tone of the advertisement strikes me as more aggressive with the bolded words being "wrong", "last time" and "my decision". The third advertisement, titled "Pothead" is a pretty straightforward and strong message. The highlighted words here are "pothead" and "are just wrong". This is simple and strong language that stands out before the rest of the text is fully readable.
Comparing the three advertisements to one another, the third one stands out as the most appealing to me. The photo is a strong one that uses the background just as much as the subject and the wording is strong and too the point.
I do think that this sort of argument is effective with its target audience to some extent. The anti drug campaign in particular seems to be much stronger and effective here with the use of stereotypes, breaking down boundaries and personal or inner strength instead of fear.