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St. Cloud State University
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No-smoking ads tend to light me up
By Joe Palmersheim
Published:
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Josef Palmersheim -- Reader´s Advocate
Can someone please tell me what monkeys and poodles have to do with smoking? Seriously, the ads these days coming out for this whole puritan non-smoking kick are really starting to baffle me. Did anyone else see the "How to survive a poodle attack" leaflet last week? What the HELL does that have to do with smoking? That was the biggest waste of ink I've ever seen in my life. Well, maybe not, but still - hope you're happy, tree killers.
The fanaticism of people when it comes to tobacco is really frightening. I smoke cigars occasionally, and when my younger brother gets within 10 feet of me, he starts making theatrical coughing noises, complaining at the same time about how I'm killing him with secondhand smoke. When did the youth get so paranoid about secondhand smoke? If I were them, I would worry about other things that could kill them, like sharp objects, cars, high school, sex, fast food, God, cell phones, AIDS etc etc.
I think that these ads are a symptom of that. It's led to paranoia on the part of those impressionable enough to look past the stupid monkeys and poodles. Target Market and other groups have made it their mission to make it so the youth of America decides not to smoke. Yeah, that's all well and good, but the way they are doing it makes me want to light up an entire pack at once just for spite.
Public service announcements used to be somewhat based in reality, with people telling you that kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray (which I've never found to be true). Another one I seem to remember is a cartoon frog saying "Please don't smoke, I might croak." Nice and campy, right? Well, somewhere along the line, it changed. Now, in these commercials, the children of today roam around with the same kind of bright-eyed idealism I saw with the Hitler Youth in "Triumph of the Will."
I understand that smoking is very bad, and it kills people. I won't argue that. But I would argue against the effectiveness of an ad that makes me want to do exactly what it tells me not to do. Light up for spite's sake? Let's hope not.
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