I know tobacco is bad for you and all, but these “the Truth” ads have gotten out of hand.
First of all, it’s not as if you take up smoking and wake up the next morning with a fatal tumor. While it may not take long for the carbon monoxide to start hurting your athletic performance, it takes decades for any smoking related disease to appear.
Second, these guys give “Big Tobacco” far more blame than they actually deserve. People have been smoking tobacco long before medical science really understood what emphysema and cancer were. By the time the dangers of smoking became common knowledge, the tobacco companies were already well established, and people were smoking despite researchers said. Are they saying that the tobacco companies should have disbanded? If they did, someone else would have just filled the void. They never sought to give people diseases, they were just satisfying a demand.
Not to mention the fact that their ads do a piss-poor job of actually describing the dangers of smoking. Is it too much trouble to be more specific than “smoking kills”?
Conclusion: Those arrogant, self-righteous bastards can take their campaign and SHOVE IT! They’d probably do a lot more good if they honestly talked about what tobacco does to your body, but nooooooo.
They are financed with the money from the settlement of that huge lawsuit all the states’ attorneys general brought against the tobacco companies. From what I gathered from someone NPR interviewed, those commercials are pretty much in direct violation of the settlement agreement, which says that the money can be used to fund education programs, but not to demonize the tobacco companies, or something to that effect.
Hm. Upon perusal of the actual settlement, I feel I must amend my earlier statement (that is to say, “flip-flop”) somewhat. I believe that the following excerpt, from the section of the settlement on the establishment of a National Public Education Fund, is what the woman interviewed on NPR was talking about:
The Truth campaign, which is funded by the National Public Education Fund, would be subject to this part of the settlement. The Truth commercials, though, don’t vilify any specific person, company, or governmental agency. They vilify tobacco companies in general, which seems not to have been proscribed, even if it is sort of in bad faith (at least to me).
[Leary] You could have cigarettes that come in a black pack, with a skull and a cross bone on the front, called tumors and smokers would be lined up around the block going, “I can’t wait to get my hands on these fucking things! I bet you get a tumor as soon as you light up! Numm Numm Numm Numm Numm”. [/Leary]
And don’t forget that these lovely leprechauns have been ignoring the actual REASON that kids smoke.
I’ve been a smoker since I was 12. I’m now 31. Why did I first light up?
I wanted to be a Cowboy.
LS/MFT can also stand for "Loose Straps/Mean Floppy Tits.
Hi, Opal!
A camel with a face that looks like a penis told me to.
None of the above.
That’s right, Truth! I started smoking because (drum roll please) I wanted to hang out with the bad-ass kids and my parents told me that I shouldn’t smoke!
Just like 95% of all smokers who started puffing when they were teenagers.
News flash! Teens are punks. I was a punk, and the kids today make my teen years look like summer camp. Kids will do what you tell them not to because you tell them not to. You want to keep kids from smoking? Lock them in an airtight room with a carton of Chesterfields and don’t let them out until they’ve all been smoked. The little shit will never smoke again.
At least until they go to college.
Thanks, Robo. I’ve been waiting for a “rip these bastards a new one” thread, I just haven’t had the stones to start it.
Don’t you get Death brand cigarettes in NL? They’re made in the UK by the Enlightened Toabcco Company. They’re in a black box with a skull and crossbones and they were quite popular a few years ago.
Yeah, those are still available here, TomH. They tend to make a nice party gift for a smoker, especially when the giver is a caring family member that actually wants the receiver to quit.