I know most of you have probably seen these ads, and if you haven't you're lucky. The first time I saw one I was extremely disturbed. As a non-smoker who was already aware of the dangerous affects of tobacco, these ads appeared to me just as a reminder of why I don't smoke. To others who do smoke tobacco, however, these ads came across as a harsh reality. The hotline to help smokers quit received a large increase in calls, as well as the government run "smokefree.gov" website, which received more than triple visits to its website than it had before. While these commercials are very disturbing, they definitely get their point across. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the ad campaign will help about 50,000 smokers to quit smoking. I have two different feelings on these ads; one being that they will be very effective because the subject matter and content of these commercials are so harsh and disgusting, the other feeling being that the ads won't be very effective because most people already know of these dangers and continue to smoke tobacco. What do you think about these ads? Are they too harsh and explicit? Or do they seem as though they will be significantly effective? Check out an article written by the NY Times about the ad campaign; one of the commercials can be found on this site as well:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/health/policy/cdc-finances-nationwide-antismoking-ad-campaign-a-first.html
I don't think that the ad is too harsh. I previously wrote a blog post about an anti-tobacco campaign in Europe that highlighted on the financial burden that smoking causes its users because they found the "scare tactic" wasn't working. I have never seen an ad for smoking this intense but I think it is ok. It reassures people who do not smoke that they are making the right choice and hopefully it will instill a little fear into smokers to think twice about quitting.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I feel about these ads. The first time, I was bothered by them. I understand why this approach was chosen, because just stating how bad cigarettes are hasn't stopped people from smoking, but I feel like this is a last-ditch effort and the next step is to just give up.
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