# Stupid smoking PSAs **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 16, 2000, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903 "2000-02-16T07:08:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/1 "2000-02-16T07:08:00Z")
I think this came up once in a GQ thread, but I’m annoyed anyway so I feel like venting. I’m not advocating smoking - hell, I quit a while back and more power to me - but is anoyone else insulted at the brain numbing content of these anti-smoking PSAs on television? Most recently, we’re told we’re going “into a major tobacco manufacturer”'s headquarters where some whatever-comes-after-Generation-X girl is holding a box labelled “LIE DETECTOR” like she just bought it out of the generic foods aisle next to the “PICKLES” and asking to talk to the marketing department. Next thing you know, she’s talking to some blurred face guy saying “Well, you said nicotine is not addictive and now you say it is addictive and we just want to know the truth!” while the guy says something like “Yeah, you’re really great” and makes them leave. #1 - Anyone entering the HQ of a “major tobacco manufacturer” wouldn’t talk to someone in marketing, they’d talk to someone in security who’d just show them the door. that’s provided the film crew and girl with the “LIE DETECTOR” box made it _in_ the door which I doubt. Maybe major toboacco manufacturer’s don’t make the kind of scratch I thought they were and can’t afford at-the-door security. #2 - If they _said_ nicotine is addictive, then why in the hell are you bothering them to take a lie detector test? And why couldn’t you of bought the lie detector in the Polygraph box? It’s bad enough that I have to watch these lame PSAs of the most racially diverse kids since a PBS children’s show all hangin’ out and talking about how they’d never smoke (I said lots of stuff when I was 14 too ;)) but this latest one seems like blatant lying to me. Even more ironic is the word “truth” on the screen while it’s going on. Finally, we have some high school aged folks on here - so tell me, how many of you ever saw the “group of young teens” PSAs and though “Right on, brother! No cigarettes for me! You convinced me it’s just not cool!”? * * * “I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.” ---
**Author:** ![TaleraRis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@TaleraRis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TaleraRis)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/2 "2000-02-16T07:13:00Z")
Good lord - I have to hear this every time that commericial comes on AND here! _runs away screaming_ 😉 * * * When are you going to realize being normal isn’t necessarily a good thing? ---
**Author:** ![tenspeedjohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenspeedjohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenspeedjohn)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/3 "2000-02-16T10:47:00Z")
It’s interesting to see how stupid the government and advertising industry thinks the general public is. What if they’re right? With the amount of money spent and research into advertising strategies, maybe they know what will appeal to the masses. ---
**Author:** ![Bluepony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Bluepony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluepony)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/4 "2000-02-16T14:14:00Z")
I quit smoking 20 years ago. This was the best decision I made in my life. Well, that and divorcing ex-wife #2. OK, quitting smoking was the _second_ best decision I’ve ever made. The PSAs are a bit self-righteous for my taste. You mean (gasp!) big business and government sometimes withhold facts from the public. OH MY GOD!! The word “Truth” just appeared to further assist my satori-like self-enlightenment! Thank you Generation X dudes, I was blind and now I see. ``` I may not smoke, don't allow it in house or car, and always prefer non-smoking areas in public places. I will tell my children truthfully that I smoked in high school and college. I also used drugs (I inhaled) and became a complete mushhead. Hopefully, they will take that grain of hard-earned wisdom and run with it. There's my "Truth". It's kinda dull and boring and you can't rap to it. Having said that, I will always bank on Phillip Morris stocks in my portfolio *anytime* :D ``` * * * _…send lawyers, guns, and money…_ ``` Warren Zevon ``` ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/5 "2000-02-16T14:34:00Z")
As anti-smoking as I am, I’ve never thought PSAs do any good. Ya want kids to start smoking? Tell them it’s wrong and evil and bad for them—they won’t be able to light up fast enough. The only way to cut smoking is to somehow keep it away from kids till they’re old and smart enough not to start in the first place (almost no one starts smoking after the age of 18). How to do THAT, I dunno . . . ---
**Author:** ![Sentinel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sentinel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sentinel)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/6 "2000-02-16T14:57:00Z")
You’ll notice that most of those no smoking ‘nazi propaganda’ ads come from a thing called ‘TRUTH,’ which is part of some religious based foundation. They seem to have absolutely no problem in distorting the ‘truth’ so long as it suits their desires. I’ve seen those commercials where smartassed ‘college’ kids call up the tobacco companies, ask them leading questions, which, of course the tobacco representatives fumble somehow and hang up on the kids. Then the kids sit there and snicker and make smartassed comments about the company. I figure if this ‘truth’ company had spent as much time in trying to stop the use of illegal drugs as they are in trying to stop smoking, that we would have no drug problem. They irritate the shit out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/7 "2000-02-16T16:13:00Z")
. . . What was that thread a few months ago, about the inappropriate use of the word “Nazi?” ---
**Author:** ![Eissclam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/2acd7d/32.png) [@Eissclam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eissclam)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/8 "2000-02-16T16:32:00Z")
Hello all: According to “Advertising Age”, the lie detector spot was a real event. Reporter Ira Teinowitz writes: One foundation spot now airing was surreptitiously filmed in the lobby of PM’s [Phillip Morris’] New York headquarters. In it, a woman tries to present a lie detector machine to someone at “a major tobacco company’s” marketing department. She’s trying to garner the truth because “You’ve said smoking is addictive and then that it isn’t.” The foundation’s Web site gives as its mission statement: “Big tobacco is spending billions on a war to get inside our heads and get us to smoke. . . . They are afraid of us discovering the truth about what they’ve done . . . and [standing] up tall to question business as usual.” None of the ads identifies the American Legacy Foundation as the sponsor. ALF is at: [http://www.americanlegacy.org/](http://www.americanlegacy.org/) Go to their “Speak Out!” page and TELL THEM what you think of their ads. I’m sure that they would appreciate some feedback. Eve, you are right taht over 70% of current smokers first used tobacco between the ages of 11-17. I hereby invite you to the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco in Arlington Virginia this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Maybe you’d like to work with us as we try to work out how to get kids to stop smoking? A noted author and famous TV star should be able to contribute something . . . Eissclam ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/9 "2000-02-16T16:58:00Z")
Eiss, I’d love to be there—but as a noted author and TV star, I’m too damn broke to go. ---
**Author:** ![Eissclam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/2acd7d/32.png) [@Eissclam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eissclam)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/10 "2000-02-16T17:01:00Z")
Note to self: Cancel plans for writing and TV career. ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/11 "2000-02-16T17:06:00Z")
Smoking is bad for your health? And **no one told me!!!???** * * * “I’ve got a DungeonMaster’s guide, I’ve got a twelve-sided die, I’ve got Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler too, waiting there for me, yes I do.” Weezer-In the Garage ---
**Author:** ![Eissclam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/2acd7d/32.png) [@Eissclam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eissclam)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/12 "2000-02-17T06:22:00Z")
And for those of you who hated them, you probably won’t have to see them anymore: Anti-Smoking Ads Pulled Over Taste by Skip Wollenberg / AP Business Writer AP, Wednesday, 2/16/00 Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2000; 12:50 a.m. EST NEW YORK –– The organization behind the biggest U.S. anti-smoking campaign is going to be watched by critics and fans to see if it has lost its nerve after pulling two of its first four commercials amid complaints the ads went too far. The American Legacy Foundation withdrew the ads to defuse a potentially distracting debate over whether the ads amounted to an improper personal attack on tobacco companies or were an arresting way to educate teens about smoking’s risks. One of the pulled ads showed young people stacking “body bags” on the sidewalk outside a tobacco company building, while the other showed teens equipped with a lie detector trying to get into a tobacco company’s offices to quiz sales executives about whether smoking was addictive. The building was not specifically identified in either ad but the commercials were filmed inside and outside the Philip Morris Cos. headquarters in Manhattan. Philip Morris, the world’s biggest cigarette maker, and some state attorneys general cried foul and the CBS television network refused to run the two ads. “It is obvious we pushed a number of buttons and we are going to keep pushing buttons,” Cheryl Healton, president and chief executive of the foundation, said Tuesday. But she said the foundation’s board voted Monday to withdraw the two ads temporarily after “concerns were raised from a variety of sectors” and addressing the controversy threatened to divert her from her main mission of reducing youth smoking. Eissclam ---
**Author:** ![MadPoet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8c91f0/32.png) [@MadPoet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPoet)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/13 "2000-02-16T19:54:00Z")
I never managed to catch those ads, and from what y’all are describing, thank the gods. But there have been some I thought were okay. First the ones where they ask some kid why they don’t smoke, and they say “I just don’t, piss off.” I think they talk to a teen’s mentality better than most ads. But my all time favorite is the one where the girl goes up to a guy and the guy starts packing his cigs and then turns into a monkey doing the same thing. Now every time I see someone packing cigarettes, it’s all I can do to keep from making monkey noises at them. Great ad. * * * [http://www.madpoet.com](http://www.madpoet.com) Clerks - Just because they serve you doesn’t mean they like you. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/14 "2000-02-16T20:02:00Z")
Anyone else read [Brunching?](http://www.brunching.com/features/feature-psas.html) * * * “It says, I choo-choo-choose you. And it’s got a picture of a train.” – Ralph Wiggum ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/15 "2000-02-17T03:13:00Z")
Well, I stand corrected about it being shot in the bona fide lobby then, although it seems obvious that they weren’t at all interested in learning the truth as opposed to making a scene to put on Tv. Which doesn’t do a thing to rate them any more highly in my mind then if they harassed any other person. I’m sure the girl at the front desk trying to make a living appreciated the little Truth Police harassing her at work so they could make their insipid, and from what I’ve read useless, PSA. And of course the question remains: If PM said nicotine was addictive, what were they hoping to prove with their “LIE DETECTOR” box? * * * “I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.” ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Armageddon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@Mister\_Armageddon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Armageddon)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/16 "2000-02-17T04:25:00Z")
Am I the only one that gets the sudden urge to inhale an entire pack of Marlboros when I see these commercials? And no, I don’t smoke, although these ads annoy me enough to make me want to start out of spite… * * * Mr. Armageddon “Just when you thought you had all the answers, I went and changed the questions!”–Roddy Piper ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/17 "2000-02-17T04:51:00Z")
> [@](#): > > And why couldn’t you of bought the lie detector in the Polygraph box? Major pet peeve time: why do people use the word “of” instead of “have” when “of” makes no sense whatsoever in the context? ---
**Author:** ![Sentinel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sentinel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sentinel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/18 "2000-02-17T05:01:00Z")
“TRUTH” is run by the Authure D. Moss foundation. (I don’t think I spelled Author right.) I cannot locate them on the web to bitch. As for ‘inappropriate use of nazi,’ I don’t think I give a fart. As for smoking in general, well I get to breath in an atmosphere rich in carcinogens from factories and cars and trucks and whatever in Chicago, New York City, LA, San Francisco, Miami, Detroit, Atlanta and so on. The converters stop vast amounts of carbon monoxide but give us vast amounts of sulfur dioxide, which is caustic and returns as acid rain. Plus, America refused to sign an international agreement to reduce it’s industrial pollutants within the next 10 years by X% because the major corporations don’t want to spend the money. Plus, in a public place, I get to mingle with **you people.** Yes, especially you nonsmokers in your nonsmoking malls and eateries and so on. I get to breath in your filth. I get to enjoy your malicious farts, if you are sick you buggers fill the air with contagious airborne particles through coughing and sneezing – not even doing like the considerate Japanese do – wearing cloth surgical masks. I get to sit in chairs your dirty asses have been on, walk on streets you spit on, drop your gum on and, sometimes, pee on. I get to grab door handles you have touched with hands you probably have not washed since taking a crap, wiping your nose, digging in your mouth, sneezing into or handling dirty things with. You happily and freely expose me daily to billions of harmful diseases and carcinogens. You nose pickers out there know what I mean. You handle my food in restaurants and cough, sneeze sweat into it. (Some of you, being pigs and pissed off, spit in it.) How many food workers, when busy, actually wash their hands after going to the can? They get to give me their feces on my forks, spoons and in my food. You drop a steak on the floor and to keep from being bitched at, you wipe or maybe rinse it off and throw it on the grill. We get to eat the germs from the dirty floor that were not killed by cooking along with any bug spray residue. Our water gets polluted by toxic factory waste, who has lawyers to convince the public and the law that it isn’t THAT toxic and no one can PROVE that THEIR poisons created the birth defects and cancers and various illnesses in the general area. YOUR smoking car provides me with enough additional carbon and byproducts to equal half a pack of smokes. Those diesel plumes above trucks are not exactly safe to stand in and they have to go somewhere. Those of you who buy those spray cans filled with freon are not doing me much good either nor are you who buy the ones containing nitrous oxide. Many of you buggers buy over the counter bug spray, often more potent than the stuff experienced exterminators use in your homes and like to ignore the instructions. So you flood your house and grounds with the stuff, which gets into MY water and food. Anyone ever stop to think about what happens to all of those powerful chemicals the lawn company sprays on your grass to keep it all green? They flood into the water supply. I get to drink them because YOU must have a deep green lawn. (I knew a man who worked for a popular lawn spraying company and discovered what _else_ they often dumped into those tanks containing just fertilizer because they did not want to pay high toxic disposal fees. I also discovered what they often bury in the foundations of new houses when ‘pretreating them’ for termites. Some places should be glowing in the dark.) Maybe we need to start creating advertisements preventing people from infecting, poisoning, gassing, and polluting other people. You know, R.J. Reynolds had begun to make a smokeless cigarette, which might have turned into something, but since it contained a small capsule of nicotine, the FDA shut it down, for they were dispensing a controlled narcotic – which is what nicotine is in its pure form. With perfection of the smokeless cigarette, us smokers would have been happier, healthier and you nonsmokers would not have to bitch about second hand smoke (yet you STAND happily in the exhaust from busses, cars and trucks), but the government shut it stupidly down. (Funny, none of you protested about that.) Shall I go into the long debate over booze, the alcohol in which is a proven poison? Most of you swill that stuff down without a peep. Have you EVER considered what is IN some of your beers? You think the beer makers might have a reason not to let you know? You think it is just water, hopps, grain and maybe a little sweetener or flavor additive? Nope. Not in some. Some add chemicals to create an unnnaturally full head of foam. Some add more chemicals to change the flavor. You swill that stuff down without a gripe. I sat in a smoking section of a resteraunt one day and lit up, puffing happily away as my meal was being cooked. A lady and guy a couple of tables away at the edge of the smoking section, became annoyed that the scent of my fine tobacco drifted, in diluted form, to their sensitive nostrils. So, they told me to stop smoking. Not asked, but rightiously told! I politely declined and was told more firmly by the man of the couple to stop for it offended him and, being, above all, a considerate fellow, I informed him that his aftershave offended me and he should leave the resteraunt. He threatened to rearrange my facial structure and I delightedly offered to do the same for him, so, appeased that we had each shown the other how manly we were, he went and got the manager, who did not stop me from smoking. They left. I enjoyed my costly meal and had a couple more fine smokes over coffee and brandy afterwards. ## Toy you nonsmokers out there, stop trying to poison me with your offal and I might consider not smoking in your vicinity. Until then, bug off! ---
**Author:** ![disreputable\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@disreputable\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/disreputable_1)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/19 "2000-02-17T05:32:00Z")
Eissclam wrote: > [@](#): > > Maybe you’d like to work with us as we try to work out how to get kids to stop smoking? How has prevention of youth smoking become such a _cause celebre_ among the dot-org crowd? As always, it’s about money but these guys shroud it in idealism. How many NGO’s are out there groveling for dollars for this useless fight? These groups are tripping all over themselves trying to get their mitts on settlement money. Last time I looked, the vast majority of today’s youth had parents who I believe are responsible for seeing these kids through to adulthood. I do not smoke but I know a witch hunt when I see it. BTW Jophiel, best sig line I’ve seen on the site. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903/20 "2000-02-17T05:45:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Major pet peeve time: why do people use the word “of” instead of “have” when “of” makes no sense whatsoever in the context? 'Coz the world ain’t a perfect place. But, touché none the less. As for the .sig, I can’t take all the credit. Or any of it. It’s a line from The Simpsons. * * * “I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-smoking-psas/13903.md?page=2)