tronvillain

Uh, they are also frequently used to simply smoke tobacco. Hell, you can buy different flavours of tobacco for them.

Anyway, I enjoy the ads. Oh, and anyone who thinks ads have no impact is fooling themselves - advertising costs far more than the content.

Loren Pechtel

I don't think the point of the ads is to get you to quit. I think the point is to keep people from starting.

Loren Pechtel

Agreed. Just say no is a joke.

However, note that those Truth ads never tell you not to smoke. All they are doing is highlighting facts about tobacco. It seems to me they would be a lot more effective.

Of course if you really want to see effective anti-smoking ads, how about the following: The tax on cigarettes will be halved. However there will be an additional tax equal to the retail price of all cigarettes sold over a base number. The base number will start out equal to current cigarette sales and will be adjusted yearly with the assumption that 1% fewer teens start smoking than the current teen smoking rate and smokers are lost at the current rate. This is calculated industry-wide, not per company.

They can continue to sell their product to existing customers no problem and can compete for market share. However, any sales beyond the base number actually cost them money. Rather than judging effort it would judge results.

MJones

I don't know, but I don't think it could hurt.

My personal education about not smoking when I was a teen was when my dad got cancer of the larnyx, had it removed, and died a year later anyway. It was a painful death. I watched him turn from a very intelegent, strong man to a weak gray haired old man who didn't even recognize his own name.

And then my secondary anti-smoking education was my mother dying of lung cancer eight years later. She was the first and only human being whose death I have witnessed. She coughed, and her lungs colapsed. Part of me wanted to save her, give her CPR, do something. But I knew it was time for her to stop suffering.
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Sorry for getting off topic....

Dirty Dog

Larry

Thanks for the 'hooka' info.


Back on topic.....

I watched a few of those ads. I'm sorry but I can't take seriously some young, starry-eyed, overzealous activist.

I smoke. I am aware that smoking is not the healthiest thing one can do. But, I'm not going to listen to these little snot-nose brats, who are fed one-sided information, then run with it.

The same goes for PETA, Greenpeace, and a slew of these other half-wit organizations.

There, I said it.....I guess my comfortable ride here is over.

Viti

I am so sorry for your loss. Most people only quit if they have had a personal scare or death of a loved one. Those ads may drive home the point with someone who has witnessed these kinds of things...but unfortunately most teens don't trust any of it if they haven't experienced it first hand.

I hate to say this, but my family seems to have suffered no ill effects from smoking...my grandfather lived past 90, my parents are both healthy, hell the doctors doing the battery of tests for my kidney donation were shocked I was a 20 year smoker. My mom smoked through both pregnancies and we are both healthy, intelligent, and my brother weighed over 9 lbs at birth (not even a low birth weight issue to point at and say "see"). I don't mean to sound callous...but I just have never been scared in any kind of personal way....and I love smoking..the addictin is as much psychological as it is physical

NialScorva

thetruth.com commercials piss me off. They're so snotty and high-horsed that it makes me sick. They always give me an urge to start smoking just to spite them. Twice I've gone out and bought cigs when I see one while drunk. Turns out that I'm not the only one, I've met several other people who say the ads give them the exact same feeling. Luckily I have my caffeine addiction to protect me from nicotine addiction, apparently.

Novowels

I agree, NialScorva. "Snotty" and "high-horsed" is dead on.

The only ads that have really annoyed me so far have been the "Just Eliminate Lies" group (I'm not sure, they may just be in IA). Although I have to admit, the start of one radio ad makes me chuckle:

Of course after that it devolves to inflated statistics and twisting of facts, like other no-smoking ads. From what I've heard (from a 14-yo cousin and his friends that smoke) teens think the ads are a joke because they practically paint a picture of "just by touching a cigarette your lungs have a 50% chance of fucking exploding!" and of course, since most of their parents smoke and are doing fine...

Of course, the bullshit about babies and food-service people and puppies and all those other poow innocent bystandews that are killed by cigarette smoke doing shit to you that anthrax couldn't fucking dream about annoys me to no end as well. I think people should be allowed to smoke in designated areas in restaurants and bars and wherever else. I can't believe they've been legislating this kind of shit lately. And putting ads on TV. What a fucking horrible waste of initiative, time, and money. Oh wait, that's the definition of government, isn't it?

I think I've linked this article in a similar discussion here before, but it remains one of my favorite pieces of prose (not just because of the subject, but because of the attitude and style). Written back in the 90's, actually. Sad to see the same tactics still being used a decade later.

Oh, and for the record, I don't smoke and never have.

Oxidizing Material

That would scare anybody off anything, putting math in like that. Fuck, not something to read in the morning. I had flashbacks to calculus.

brighid

Lady Shea,

You are very lucky that thus far no one in your family has suffered ill effects. Perhaps your family possesses some genetic factor that makes your family the exception rather then the rule.

My mother is 50 and has had spots on her lungs for at least 5 years. My mother smoked at least with me and I have certainly suffered life long immune impairment, along with the burden of asthma that will never go away. I have never been healthy, nor have I ever smoked, but I have had to inhale second hand smoke for the majority of my life and frankly, that is simply unfair.

It makes no difference to me that adults chose to smoke. It's their life. But children shouldn't be exposed to it period. It's not their choice and their health is negatively impacted. I wish my parents never smoked. I would probably be MUCH healthier. It took my parents (despite the doctors telling them NOT to smoke in the house, and my mother is a CC nurse) two brushes of near death with ME before the quit smoking in the house. To me, that is utterly and fucking pathetic.

My sister 5 children all suffer from regular ear infections, upper respiratory infections and at least one is confirmed to have asthma. Yet my sister and her husband spend $500 a month on cigarettes and tons of money on doctor bills. My sister and her husband aren't healthy, and neither are their children. The reason she has 5 (well, actually many more) unplanned pregnancies is because she can't take the pill because she almost stroked out - from smoking ... sorry, it just all infuriates me so. Truly, you really are lucky.

I think the adds are aimed at teenagers, who are generally the most vulnerable and I think most teenagers listen to their peers more then they listen to adults.

I hope you always remain healthy.

B