Hard core anti-smoking commercials. We're scaring our kids.

[trof]

I overheard my 6 year old granddaughter and her friend talking today.

"Do you watch those movies about cancer people? The ones with their legs cut off and holes in their neck?"
"No. They're scary. I don't watch 'em. I just go out to the kitchen and look for a snack."
"I don't either. I watched one and I had bad dreams about it. Why do they have that on TV? Mommy changes the channel now. I'd rather watch Sponge Bob."
"Yeah, me too."

This is pretty much verbatim what I heard from two little girls while they were bouncing up and down on a trampoline in the back yard.

Have we gone overboard on the anti-smoking thing?
Just MHO, but I think there's been plenty of info about the risks of smoking. These two are highly unlikely to ever start smoking. Their parents don't. And obviously their friends don't.
These gross PSOs that have been running morning noon and night for the last several months. And they're scaring kids. Kids that will never smoke anyway and have enough to be scared about without this.

Got my Nomex undies on, so have at it.

[Auggie]

1. I'm okay with that ... hopefully they will pass that fear onto their peer groups

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Because they have been found effective around the world.

We are actually way late to that party.

[trof]

11. Stats? According to whom?

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. The WHO.

You should take a look at the Mexican and Australian adds.

Don't worry, tobacco is opposed and using new TTP rules (once the treaty goes online) will see the end of these campaigns.

Oh and the CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/a0530-anti-smoking-ads.html

[LongTomH]

15. Smoking rates have declined in Australia

In Australia the incidence of smoking is in decline, with figures from 2004–5 showing 23% of the population to be current smokers, a decline of 2% compared to 1995. Among the indigenous population, the rate is much higher, with 51% of men and 49% of women reported to be current daily smokers. Young adults are the most likely age group to smoke, with a marked decline in smoking rates with increasing age. The prevalence of smoking is strongly associated with socioeconomic disadvantage [low earners], with over double the rate in the most disadvantaged quintile of the population as compared to the least.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_cigarette_consumption_per_capita

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. I know

I posted the photos on cigarette packages down thread.

[MindPilot]

3. Just like the anti-drug PSAs

They are so over-the top they are ineffective. Kids aren't stupid; they see that stuff on TV, then look around and see someone smoking who appears perfectly fine, or they try it themselves and don't die, then they tend to ask "what else are the grownups lying about?"

[randome]

4. I would think SOME information is better than NO information.

Same thing with birth control. Maybe they could tone down the visceral descriptions and graphics, though.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[MindPilot]

6. Totally agree. Even better is accurate information presented in context.

But that is just part of my utopian fantasy that education can fix almost any problem.

[bunnies]

5. I dont think kids should be subjected to those images...

any more than I think they should be subjected to those uber-graphic anti-choice posters.
But hey... I dont have any kids so what the hell do I know. Im just glad I got rid of that damned TV.

[olddots]

7. Make it real not over the top

over the top scare tactics are not educational they are entertaining.

[Happyhippychick]

8. I'm in favor of them. Terrifying anti-drug ads in the 70's kept me 100% clean.

They may not work with everyone but if one kid doesn't smoke because he/she was frightened by an ad it was well worth it.

[trof]

20. Sorry, I don't subscribe to the 'one kid' or 'one person' argument.

Especially when something scares kids.
They're too young to process that kind of cause and effect.
They just know 'yucky' and 'scary'.

[tech3149]

9. As a smoker and non-parent I do think it's overkill.

There's no need to scare them about smoking. They are smarter than that and something as simple as the smell is enough to turn them off to the idea of smoking. I've heard more than a few times "Daddy I don't like him ,he smells".

[opiate69]

10. I have a hard time imagining they're even remotely effective...

Generally speaking, children/teens are pretty much incapable of conceptualizing themselves 10, 20, 50 years in the future, so there's no way they could relate themselves to the "old lady on TV".

[Zoeisright]

13. Good.

Kids need to be scared about tobacco and cigarettes. I highly doubt that telling them that cigarettes are deadly is going to give them nightmares.

Because the only people who start smoking in the first place ARE kids. Almost 90% of smokers (I think the number is higher) start before they're 18. The average age for a new smoker is THIRTEEN FUCKING YEARS OLD.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. To add to the discussion.

These are Australian adds on cartons

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/data?pid=avimage&iid=ix.utAsf38Dk

Notice anything missing? Bueler?

[NYC_SKP]

17. Meanwhile, alcoholic beverage consumption is promoted BIG TIME on teevee and elsewhere.

Somehow, that's OK.

In fact, booze ads were once forbidden but are now everywhere.

[Rex]

18. It disturbs my friends that smoke.

Which the commercials should, that is their goal.

[Iggo]

19. Sounds like they're working.

[karmalk]

21. who said 6 year olds were the only target?

i think they're more for people who already started

they're not making this stuff up, that's what really happens if you keep smoking, you get important parts of your body cut off as a very imperfect solution

it's fair warning, and i'm glad i had my own images in my head years ago, to motivate me to quit

[jmowreader]

22. They need to point out a few other things

A pack-a-day habit at $7 per pack is damn near a car payment.

The cute members of the gender you want to date don't want to kiss cigarette smokers.

The cops are starting to arrest teens who smoke; in Idaho, use of tobacco by minors is a $500 fine and our hanging judges have no mercy in this.

Standing in the rain sucking on a cancer stick makes you look like a dumbass.

Most parents will punish you severely if they catch you smoking.

Cigarettes take over your life. All the fun stuff happens when you're fifty feet away sucking on a butt.

It's good to point out what happens to you after 30 years of smoking; pointing out how it fucks up your life now would be good too.

[surrealAmerican]

23. Do they show these on programs that are made for six-year-olds?

... or are these children watching whatever their parents want to see? Not all television is appropriate for children that age, nor should it be.