Anit-smoking ads increase Smoking in Teens

[JazzManJim]

The American Legacy Foundation, the group behind the "Truth" anti-smoking ads, was started as part of the lawsuit settlement between the government and the tobacco companies. Their funding comes from that 216 billion dollar settlement exclusively.

Recently, they came out and said that the anti-smoking ads ("Think, don't smoke") done by the Phillip Morris Company were actually encouraging teens to smoke.

I read this article carefully, and watched the statements by the spokesman. At no point did they tie any substantive statistics to an increase in youth smoking to the Morris campaign. Their chief problem seems to be that the Morris campaign focuses on the short-term effects of smoking as opposed to the believed long-term effects.

The study they are using is one they've done themselves, using their ad campaign and the Morris campaign.

Now, I'll say up front that I'm a smoker and that I despise the "Truth" ads. I believe them to be factually misleading, without actually lying. I also think that they encourage kids to break the law, since most of the ads show the people in the ads doing illegal things to protest a legal thing, which strikes me as a bit odd. So, yes, I'm biased against the ads and this group.

However, that doesn't stop me from being able to look at their statements and their study and question its validity based on what I know about objective scientific studies and statistical analysis. I do know that the first thing you should examine when a study is announced is who has done the study and what the study involved. This study is pretty darned slanted, as it includes only two anti-smoking ads (theirs and that of their foes) as opposed to all of them. That alone is enough to raise a question. To make a statement that doesn't appear to be justified by the study at all is even more egregious.

Own own personal take is that this organization really has no interest in whether or not he Morris campaign has worked, or if any tobacco company ad campaign will work. What they want is the company's money directly, to use as they see fit. The ads mean that the company isn't giving money to them and that's the problem they have with it.

That's my take, anyhow.

 

[Purple Haze]

False advertising is illegal,

Unless it's on the right side of the politically correct propaganda machine involving tobacco or "drugs."

Then, you can lie through your teeth.

 

[Sillyman]

The Phillip Morris Ads do encourage smoking. Most of them are incredibly dorky kids talking about how it's cool to not smoke and obey your parents and conform and blah, blah, blah...

Most of the activities in the Truth ads are perfectly legal.

 

[JazzManJim]

The Phillip Morris Ads do encourage smoking. Most of them are incredibly dorky kids talking about how it's cool to not smoke and obey your parents and conform and blah, blah, blah...

Most of the activities in the Truth ads are perfectly legal.

Nah. the "Truth" ads encourage smoking. At least they did in me just to spite those smug bastards. I don't have the stats to back that up though, and neither do they.

But really, much of what they're doing is illegal. Honest.

 

[michaelmt1]

Im male and I smoke but I have figured how to beat the health problems with smoking I only buy the packs that say :

"Smoking harms Your unborn Baby"


Works for me.


Mike

 

[Sillyman]

They don't tend to catch my attention. The fake ads they did for a little bit were cute. Like the soda that caused people to explode. Heh. Most of the time, they don't even draw my eye anymore though.

They are smug bastards I will say that. I believe the same people also tried a similar anti teen sex campaign that wasn't as successful.

 

[Rubyfruit]

I truly hope they find a way to actually discourage smoking among teens. That's when I started, and it's my biggest regret in life.

 

[morninggirl5]

Anti-smoking ads have about the same effect on teens that anti-teen sex and pregnancy ads have. The kids that were gonna smoke are gonna smoke and the kids that weren't gonna smoke aren't gonna decide to smoke.

The reasons teens smoke (or do anything they do) have less to do with what they see on TV and more to do with what's happening in the world around them. Their peers are the influence that count.

 

[TWB]

My understanding is that they are going to take a new tact after the study. I sincerely hope they figure out a strategy which meets the goal of eliminating teen smoking, as well as discouraging adult smoking.

 

[markb325]

Anti Smoking and our government

Lets start with this the government of the US and the states with in were wrong to sue the tabacco companies to begin with. No one forced the people to smoke and they could have said no to begin with.

Second teens are going to smoke for one simple reason they are being told they can't. It is proven that if you tell someone they can't do something they are going to do it anyway (with in reason of course)

The ads aren't doing any good, because either way you look at it they are telling teens that they can't smoke.

I am not or will I promote teen smoking for the reason that I shouldn't have started smoking myself. Smoking no matter is not a wise thing and I hope that teens don't start... but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Wiggles]

I like them actually. I think they've done it in a way that catches kids attention. Some of them are cheesey, like the ones you hear on the radio. Fake kids spouting off lines written by people who've never faced the obstacles of growing up in a smokers home. But most get their point across in a straight forward manner.

I can't think of a better way to get the message out there. The D.A.R.E cop and teddy bear didn't work. The school rally's didn't work. Advice and lectures from authority figures hasn't worked.

I think the TRUTH ads have a very edgy retro feel going on, and that's something that teenagers want to relate with.

 

[Sillyman]

They need to tell them the freudian implications that anyone who smokes is mentally sucking on a small cock.

They need to force them to French Kiss a five pack a day smoker.

Enforcemnet of ID checks and limiting availability always helps, and of course education about smoking's short and long term effects. Trick is to do it without seeming preachy (How do you know if you've never tried it?) or hypocritical(Hey man, you smoke two fucking packs a day!). Tricky tricky.

Appealing to the shallow sense of teenagers and showing how smoking will make them unattractive and unaccepted by their social group in general is the best tactic.