# I've been thinking about quiting smoking but these "Truth" ads aren't helping.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [December 6, 2003, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413 "2003-12-06T18:30:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/1 "2003-12-06T18:30:06Z")
You know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen the god damn pretentious ads with the people laying in the street or a “CrazyWorld” theme park that has something to do with smoking but I can’t get past the snotty nosed teens preaching at me to get their message. I went to their [website](http://thetruth.com/truth.cfm) to get some dirt but, shocker, it sucks too. Who pays for all these ads to bash tobacco companies? And what’s their goal, I already know that smoking is shitty!
Go spend your money feeding hungry people or something and stay off my idiot box.
And I actually am going to quit on New Year’s, so **NO PREACHING!**
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/2 "2003-12-06T18:35:07Z")
I think that the ads were made to stop kids from starting to smoke, not to get adults to stop. We have the glurgey children saying “please stop smoking, Daddy” ads for getting adults to quit.
Haj
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### Author:  [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/3 "2003-12-06T18:50:18Z")
Those ads drive me batty. And make me want to go outside for a smoke, just to retaliate.
Same way those anti-marijuana ads make me want to hit the pipe. They’re just too over-the-top. I feel as if my intelligence is being insulted. The pot ads are just plain out _wrong_ and the cigarette ads are just, like I said, _way_ over the top. If they’re _that_ goddamn **horrific** , make 'em illegal! Isn’t that why weed is illegal? Because it’s so **bad** for you?
They’re doing a **bang up job** , if you ask me.
:rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/4 "2003-12-06T18:51:35Z")
Please not that I’m not trying to say cigarettes are harmless. I know they’re horrible for you.
Thing is, if anyone in this day and age who smokes _doesn’t know it’s bad_, they’ve got bigger issues than their smoking habit.
Seriously, it doesn’t need to be drilled in our heads every 5 minutes like we’re fucking school children.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/5 "2003-12-06T18:56:20Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by lezlers \*
> \*\*Seriously, it doesn’t need to be drilled in our heads every 5 minutes like we’re fucking school children. \*\*
Uh, that’s the point. The ads aren’t made for adults. They _are_ made for school children. So they won’t start.
Haj
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### Author:  [@AntaresJB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AntaresJB)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/6 "2003-12-06T20:01:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by lezlers \*
> \*\*
> Seriously, it doesn’t need to be drilled in our heads every 5 minutes like we’re _fucking school children._ \*\*
(italics mine.)
They have to have ads to tell you not to do _that_ now? :eek:
😉
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### Author:  [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/7 "2003-12-06T20:18:30Z")
If they were made for school children **haj** , they wouldn’t be playing them around the clock. I believe they’re meant for everyone. Not to mention the fact that if they were soley meant for school children, they have done some REALLY shitty market research. Since when do school children care about infant deaths and ingredient listings?
**AntaresJB** , well, you know the majority of television watchers are idiots, so yes. They **do** need to be told not to fuck school children. Apparently, Michael missed that commercial.
😃
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### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/8 "2003-12-06T20:23:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Bruce\_Daddy \*
> **Who pays for all these ads to bash tobacco companies?**
Strangely enough, the tobacco companies-indirectly. The American Legacy Foundation, in charge of the “truth” campaign, was somehow or other founded due to the tobacco settlement, even though the settlement strictly states that the money can’t be used to vilify tobacco companies. [This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=107707&highlight=american+legacy+foundation) pointed out some of Lorrilard Tobacco’s gripes with the campaign.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/9 "2003-12-06T20:30:29Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by lezlers \*
> \*\*
> Thing is, if anyone in this day and age who smokes _doesn’t know it’s bad_, they’ve got bigger issues than their smoking habit.
>
> \*\*
Kids don’t know this. It’s not because they have bigger issues then a smoking habit, it’s because they are idiots.
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### Author:  [@lucwarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucwarm)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/10 "2003-12-06T20:42:47Z")
I agree – the ads are really pretentious and annoying.
I’m no ad-man, but it seems like a no-brainer to me: If you want to make an effective anti-smoking ad for kids, just make an advert that associates not smoking with being popular and good looking. For example, you could show a star athlete, who doesn’t smoke, helping his team win the game in front of a cheering crowd.
If you really feel that you gotta be negative, you could show smokers who are dumpy and unattractive.
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### Author:  [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/11 "2003-12-06T20:57:05Z")
**With all due respect to all who have posted, I think you’re missing the point of the Truth ads.**
I see them as a graphic demonstration of the cigarette companies’ true motive: addiction. To me, the ads display a depraved wantonness from mega-corporations that will make an already-addictive product even more so.
The turning point for me, since I am an advocate for homeless and human rights in general, was the Truth commercial that described what I’d previously thought was an Urban Myth. Project SCUM. Sub-Culture Urban Marketing. Target gays and homeless with smoke-bombs.
After a little home-brewed analysis of toxins in cigarettes, plus mountains of research, I made the choice to NEVER buy another pack of smokes from these assholes. (In much the same way, I try to avoid any Dow Chemical products, but for entirely different reasons.)
I still smoke, just a whole lot less; I roll my own from tobacco I have tested, know and trust. It’s enjoyable. The effect is significantly different, but it’s almost entirely without the “jitters and joneses.”
Just food for thought.
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### Author:  [@MrTuffPaws](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrTuffPaws)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/12 "2003-12-06T20:57:12Z")
No worse than the anti drug commercials. I can’t wait for them to tackel the auto industry
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### Author:  [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/13 "2003-12-06T21:01:01Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by lucwarm \*
> \*\*If you really feel that you gotta be negative, you could show smokers who are dumpy and unattractive. \*\*
Or smokers who refuse to yield to tailgaters.
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### Author:  [@Mies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mies)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/14 "2003-12-06T21:13:13Z")
ahhh…so if it’s ididotic and irritating, it must be geared torwards “the children”. Got an idea, give it a name w/ an “X” and everyone will get it.
show’s how little respect madison avenue has for the teeming masses.
or maybe our next generation is partially retarded, with no attention span, so we’re doomed anyway…who wants to go for a smoke.
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### Author:  [@Tremmie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tremmie)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/15 "2003-12-06T21:27:37Z")
After smoking 3 packs a week for 8 years or so i one day simply decided to stop, having had one since and havent missed it or had any urges to start again. I frankly don’t see the big deal, and i don’t see why even a kid old enough to read would need those pretentious idiots to tell them cigarettes are addictive and harmfull.
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### Author:  [@jujuju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jujuju)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/16 "2003-12-06T21:52:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mr. B \*
> \*\*(In much the same way, I try to avoid any Dow Chemical products, but for entirely different reasons.)
> \*\*
[hijack]just out of curiosity, why do you avoid dow chemicals? you may email me if you like[/hijack]
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### Author:  [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/17 "2003-12-06T21:59:00Z")
Because dow is evil.
Anyhoo: **lucwarm** nailed it. These ads are not targeted to children. If they are, they SERIOUSLY need to hire another market research team.
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### Author:  [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/18 "2003-12-06T22:09:11Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jujuju \*
>
> [hijack] just out of curiosity, why do you avoid dow chemicals? you may email me if you like [/hijack]
**lezlers** is absolutely right. But if you’re interested, please try a web search on Bhopal and Union Carbide, which was absorbed by Dow.
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### Author:  [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/19 "2003-12-06T22:14:35Z")
I think **luc** is on to something, only, show unattractive people who are unattractive because of smoking. The wrinkles, the ill health, the lingering death that is lung cancer. Show the actual results of lung disease, the cross sections of diseased lungs and so on.
I’ve long thought that they should do the same thing with drunken drivers. Don’t show the piddly two beer glasses crashing into each other “friends don’t let friends drive drunk” Show actual accident victims, show the drunk drivers after 5 years in jail. Show all the hoops drunk drivers have to jump through to get their licenses back and to get to and from work etc. JMHO
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### Author:  [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-thinking-about-quiting-smoking-but-these-truth-ads-arent-helping/217413/20 "2003-12-06T22:15:10Z")
I got behind the Truth van on the Jersey Turnpike once. Unfortunately, I don’t smoke, so I wasn’t able to do what I really wanted to do - drive past them and light up as soon as I pulled neck and neck with them.
Ava
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