Smoking and Health - Man

A businessman smoker is forced to rethink his habit.

Part of a series of films by the Ministry of Health designed to discourage smoking (‘Teenager’ and ‘Woman’ are also available to view on BFI Player), Man is the least successful of the series, at least by today’s standards.

All three films feature overacting and exaggerated camera effects (crash-zooms, etc.), in order to convey a simple message without dialogue. But ‘Man’ also has a somewhat muddled narrative. A businessman steels himself for making a difficult phonecall by lighting a cigarette, but when the phone instead begins to ring, his coughing fit prevents him from answering. As evidenced by other adverts in the series, this campaign was clearly aimed at deterring middle-class smokers, conveying the message that the hard-headed processes of British business could be disrupted by this most unwelcome of habits.