They're so annoying.
Posted by Hank (Member # 8916) on :
Does anyone in America NOT know that cigarettes are wicked bad for you?
Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
quote:cigarettes are wicked bad for you
Since when?! Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
Ugh, I can't bring myself to go over this one again.
Suffice it to say: me too, mph.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
I agre with the sentiment of many of these commercials, but I find the execution excreable.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
^ Precisely.
Posted by cheiros do ender (Member # 8849) on :
I was going to take up smoking. Then I decided to get braces. Then I spent $990 on pre-orthodontic dental treatment. Then I was like... Oh.
One day I'll smoke.
Posted by Morydd (Member # 5004) on :
I think the issue is the fact that commercials are created (for the most part) by the tobacco companies. If I had to make a commercial advertising how awful my product was, you can bet that I'd make the commercial as bad as I thought I could get away with.
Posted by TheGrimace (Member # 9178) on :
I just like this thread because it involves the phrase "wicked bad"
=p
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
I like the thetruth.com ads.
They're made from the money the states got from the tobacco industries after the big lawsuits years ago.
I like ads that make smokers look uncool and especially that point out the health effects and the wretched actions of cigarette companies over the years.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote:I like the thetruth.com ads.
I hate them. They're obnoxious and make me want to turn off the TV.
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
But you don't smoke, though?
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
quote:Originally posted by cheiros do ender: One day I'll smoke.
Why?
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Nope.
Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
quote:Originally posted by Noemon:
quote:Originally posted by cheiros do ender: One day I'll smoke.
Why?
Maybe he believes in cremation? Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Or hell.
Posted by Launchywiggin (Member # 9116) on :
Coming from a family of smokers (not me), everyone in my family agrees that the commercials contain subliminal messages that still encourage smoking.
I know that every time one of them came on, it was time for a smoke break.
(then again, my family is the "rebellious" type)
Posted by vonk (Member # 9027) on :
quote:I like ads that make smokers look uncool
Why? That's just as flimsy an argument as "smoking makes your look cool." I don't think smoking has any effect on one's cool points. Blowing smoke rings or french inhaling on the other hand - Super Cool! Posted by Tresopax (Member # 1063) on :
I like the new anti-smoking ads. They are 1000 times better than what they used to be.
And I do think smoking is a huge minus in terms of one's coolness.
Posted by vonk (Member # 9027) on :
That's ok. I have to smoke or else my cool points would shoot through the roof and I really would be too cool for school. I've got to keep a cap on it so I don't intimidate people. Really, I just smoke for the good of mankind.
Posted by Luet13 (Member # 9274) on :
I'm not a big fan of the ads. Most of the time I just find them ridiculous. i.e. The ones where the guy goes around to different recovery centers asking if they treat addiction to m&ms and jogging.
I am a smoker trying to quit. The ads haven't really affected my desire to quit though. (Or given me any magical willpower)
Personally, I find myself endlessly amused by the anti drug ads, where people smoking pot look like giant lumps, or stunted freaks, or they just stare complacently out of windows.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote: Most of the time I just find them ridiculous. i.e. The ones where the guy goes around to different recovery centers asking if they treat addiction to m&ms and jogging.
Yup. Those are the worst ones.
Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 2150) on :
I work in a life insurance office at the moment. It always amazes me how much higher premiums are for smokers than nonsmokers - sometimes twice as much or more.
Yet, every day I still see people standing outside smoking, alone, fifty feet from the building or so.
I mean, they look at these policies and see the underwriting and see the premium increases and the life expectancy tables - and they still feel the need to go out in the rain and light up under a tree in the parking lot?
It's not even a social thing, since most of them go out alone - I've even seen people begging other less frequent smokers to go out with them, and when they say no, going out alone to stand around with a cigarette.
It's really kind of sad.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
I don't smoke, I have no desire to smoke, but those Truth ads almost make me want to take up smoking just because they're so obnoxious, and I want to rally against them.
Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 2150) on :
They should just do little "Now you Know" segments about how nicotine is an incredibly toxic contact poison, and how nicotine powder was used in the early rennaissance period to kill people.
They'd be interesting and informative.
This is an interesting anti-drug tidbit, too... though nothing on nicotine. Maybe nicotine kills the spiders outright.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
That caffeine web is a work of art. I'm gonna go drink a pot of coffee and start writing!
I love those recent "don't smoke pot" commercials, where someone talks about how they listened to their friends and smoked, pot, and then they listened to their friends and did something "stupid."
The "stupid" thing is always pretty cool. See, you never knew you could outrun the junkyard dog until you listened to your stoner friends and smoked a fatty. Either your stoner friends are good motivators, or marijuana makes you run like the wind!
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Thats so strange that people hate the anti smoking adds so much. Maybe we hate being told what to do so directly?
Could somebody outline to me what would constituted a GOOD anti smoking commercial? Apprarently pointing out the drawbacks to smoking does not work.
Does this mean if somebody put out a smoking advertisement that was so over the top positive towards smoking, people would quit?
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
quote: I don't think smoking has any effect on one's cool points.
I am by no means an expert into what is cool, but when I see someone smoking, their "coolness" drops like a sack of rocks.
Same goes with attractiveness.
"Wow, that girl over there is gorgeous."
<said girl takes out cigarette>
"Eww, yuck. Nevermind."
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Darn those pesky Hobbits.
You do realize that its those evil Hobbits, and their pipe weed that has grown into the tobbacco industry we know and loathe today.
Gandalph and Aragon, and how many other leaders, captured by their addictive weed into wasting their time and effort protecting the fields.
Only brave and honorable Saramon, greatest of the wizards, was able to break the addiction and go on a crusade to erradicate the weed. Yet he fell to the violence inherant in the system as the drug dealers and pushers in their little hobbit holes did that little ride-by gang shooting.
Witnesses report how the gang of "half-lings" were led by two steroid using brutes (E.N.T-Moot was the steroid of choice).
Saramun was "the Boss!". He was burning the fields man. He was burning the fields. So they burned him, and burned him good.
Today, with their corporate white wash and big tobacco money, they brought in one of their own to rewrite history. Tolkien was one of their addicts (ever picture of him shows his abuse of the tobacco). Peter Jackson is one of them, and their attempt to rewrite history, making these big-business-moguls appear as the underdogs, is as pathetic as these anti-smoking comercials.
Saramon lives man, as long as you and me, we keep up the fight against little brother, the tobacco kings, the nasty hobbits.
(This post paid for by the Smeagol's For Clean Air Committee)
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
The Shards of Glass ad was hilarious.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
I don't mind the smoking isn't cool ads becuase for decades the smoking IS cool ads worked like a charm.
And the truth ads might be a little obnoxious, but they are litterally telling the truth. I don't mind that.
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
I think the anti-marijuana ads are even more stupid.
"You used to be taller. What happened?" "Pressure."
What the crap?
The only one I've liked, I think, is the one where the guy is always the DD at parties because his friends get stoned and drunk, and as a result he's the only one who's coherent enough to get girls.
-pH
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote:And the truth ads might be a little obnoxious, but they are litterally telling the truth. I don't mind that.
That's no excuse.
Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 2150) on :
Shards of Glass was really good, I must say.
Good call, Syn. Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
The target audience of those ads is teens, not 30+ year olds.
Considering the target audience, it isn't that obnoxious, it's perfectly in line.
Posted by cheiros do ender (Member # 8849) on :
Those pictures are on every single packet of cigarettes in Australia.
Posted by TheGrimace (Member # 9178) on :
I still just miss the anti-drug adds with Rachel Leigh Cook flipping out and destroying the kitchen... those were great.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
I liked that one. I don't think it'd actually stop anyone from doing drugs, but I like Rachel Leigh Cook. Posted by cheiros do ender (Member # 8849) on :
quote:Originally posted by Noemon:
quote:Originally posted by cheiros do ender: One day I'll smoke.
Why?
Too much authority trying to get me not to. Nothing annoys me more than having to pay extra for something because some pretentious snob, or snobs, want me not to have it. That is, except for that extra money (revenue) being spent to tell me not to yet again.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
Huh. I've always rather liked the Truth commercials.
Posted by cheiros do ender (Member # 8849) on :
quote:Originally posted by TheGrimace: I still just miss the anti-drug adds with Rachel Leigh Cook flipping out and destroying the kitchen... those were great.
Man, I cracked up worse than that egg watching that.
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
I liked the old Truth commercials, but they kind of ran out of interesting angles.
-pH
Posted by MyrddinFyre (Member # 2576) on :
*second's pH's post*
I think the anti-smoker ads tend to try for angles they think will reach young people and instead just end up looking ridiculous. Though I saw one today which was very interesting and I enjoyed, about the multi-flavored ones.
edit: gah! lag! I was talking about pH's *first* post Posted by Irami Osei-Frimpong (Member # 2229) on :
I don't mind the anti-smoking ads. As cornball as it was, when Nancy Reagan said, "Just say 'No,'" I just said "No." When MacGyver told me that a fried egg was my brain on drugs, I didn't take drugs. On T.V., when some kid would come huffing and puffing into home plate, and then we cut to a scene of him smoking behind the dugout, I didn't want to huff and puff, so I didn't smoke.
I think that smoking is more or less popular in different states. For example, I'm still getting used to all of the smoking in the Midwest, or maybe California is just an outlier. For the most part, smoking cigarettes stopped being acceptable for adults in the late 80s.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I did know a guy who thought the medical research about smoking was a scam. Sort of like how you can run into people who think the MMR causes autism, or that Lance Armstrong was on EPO, or that the drug companies invented the idea that St. John's Wort counteracts birth control pills, or that hormone replacement therapy causes cancer. Wait...
Well, anyway, he built one of our computers for us a couple of (system) generations back.
Heh. I was just watching the commentary of FOTR where PJ thought he would get flak over the pipeweed scene.
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
quote:Originally posted by cheiros do ender:
quote:Originally posted by Noemon:
quote:Originally posted by cheiros do ender: One day I'll smoke.
Why?
Too much authority trying to get me not to. Nothing annoys me more than having to pay extra for something because some pretentious snob, or snobs, want me not to have it. That is, except for that extra money (revenue) being spent to tell me not to yet again.
Ever heard the phrase "cutting off your nose to spite your face"?
Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
Mmmm... ciggies...
*takes a drag off his flaming fag*
Anyone see the Robot Chicken spoof of that Rachel Leigh Cook commercial? Funny as heck.
Actually I'm glad you linked to that because I had never seen the original before! Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
I preferred the old Anti-smoking and Anti-drug commercials where authority figures told you not to do drugs, or where they showed someone who was in the hospital for lung cancer or something. Those made sense, and they made an impact.
Some jackass telling me that executives of cigarette companies are idiots doesn't make me want to smoke less, it just makes me wish the jackass would shut up so I can watch my TV.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I guess this past monday marked 5 years that I haven't watched network TV apart from the Olympics. I remember seeing an ad for Passion of the Christ and thinking it was going to turn out to be a Visa ad.
Posted by Elmer's Glue (Member # 9313) on :
I wish they would make personalized advertizing. Like, I'm never going to smoke or drink, so they can stop bothering me with those ads.
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
That's how I feel about Louisiana political ads. Hi, I can't vote here. Move along.
-pH
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
thetruth ads are horrible. What do the evils committed by tobacco companies thirty years ago have to do with whether or not I should smoke?
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote:thetruth ads are horrible. What do the evils committed by tobacco companies thirty years ago have to do with whether or not I should smoke?
I use the same justifications for why I don't vote. Posted by Libbie (Member # 9529) on :
quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: They're so annoying.
Me, too. They're so self-righteous and obnoxious.
And now they're getting all myspacey. Yes, I made up an adjective. It's so fitting, though.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Still waiting on an outline for a GOOD anti smoking commercial. As well as whether or not it would work to brodcast advertisements that were over the top in favor of smoking as a way to deter people since being strongly critical ENCOURAGES smoking apparently.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
I mentioned the outline for good commercials:
Have an actual person who has had smoking related problems discuss them. "Hi, I'm 30 and I started smoking when I was 15 because I thought it was cool. I had to have a lung removed because of cancer, and now I can't walk to the corner store without huffing and puffing. Don't smoke."
Or get some celebrities for the kids. "Hi I'm a famous athlete. If you smoke, your lung capacity goes down X%. Try doing this when you're bent over trying to catch your breath." *athlete does awesome move* "Smoking is for losers. Don't be one."
In other words, get to the point, be real, don't be a douche. I don't want to see some idiot harping on how stupid smoking ads are or how some study done on executives said they had a dumb idea 10 years ago.
I don't want anyone in the add to have a bullhorn, pretend they're trying to sell something, yell at random people on the street and show their reactions, or do something idiotic and make a lame metaphor between their behavior and a smoking campaign idea some random marketing team considered.
Posted by vonk (Member # 9027) on :
I think a good anti-smoking ad would deliver just the facts, no "clever" gimmicks or hyped up, unrealistic situation. It would also deal with the present effects of smoking on the person, not on the past lies of the big tobacco companies, or any political or economic shiftyness. That won't convince me I shouldn't smoke, but I suppose it might make me stop buying that brand (but it would have to be pretty bad, 'cause I love my Camels).
I also think an effective strategy would be to focus more on the monetary effects of smoking. Add up the figures of a year smoking a pack a day, two years, five, whatever. I tend to think about that more than health factors.
If the anti-smoking commercials were just a regular talking head type guy with a few charts and graphs giving me facts and not judgements, it would go a long way. I doubt it would work, mind you, but it wouldn't annoy the bejesus out of me.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Jux, what "The Truth" ads represent is an attempt to realize many of the excuses people still use to smoke were created by liars. And no where does it claim that those lies stopped forty years ago, or twenty, or yesterday.
Many of the lies laughed at in "The Truth" commercials are still used to sell cigarettes in third world countries.
Posted by Mrs.M (Member # 2943) on :
I just saw one about how smoking increases belly fat in teens (which I don't know that I believe) and I found it incredibly offensive. Basically, the ad was, "Look how disgusting fat teens are. Don't smoke or you'll be fat and disgusting, too." It was just plain cruel.
In my experience, kids have had anti-smoking, anti-drug, etc. campaigns shoved down their throats for so long that they don't even register anymore. When my 4th and 5th graders had DARE Day, I asked them what they'd learned. The answers were either, "We got t-shirts" or "We got to miss an entire day of school."
Posted by Terrd (Member # 9734) on :
The anti-smoking camaign is just "the man" trying to put down yet another group of people. The commercials are totaly stupid and anoying, personally I smoke a sig every time i see one just in defiance. All this talk about second hand smoke and smokeing kill is bull. More people die every year just by being passagers in cars then die of second hand smoke. so where are the anoying "dont second hand ride in car commercials?" or fat people, where are all the anti-krispy cream commerials. i mean come on sure its not good for you but then not much in our world is anymore with the advent of fast food globle warming and industry why waste so much time and money targeting such a petty thing. On another note funnest anti-drug commerial ive ever seen was the one with 4 black guys in a car full of smoke ordering food,(case of the munches) and giggleing, then runnign over a kid. only message i got from it is just how racist tv net works can be. to me all it was was a play on sterotypes and should have been planed with alittle more tact.
Posted by Elmer's Glue (Member # 9313) on :
I don't care about getting lung cancer, or anything like that. I don't smoke because it smells bad. Also, they are really expensive.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
Terrd: Either you're really into self-inflicted eugenics or you're really good at satire. I can't actually tell.
Posted by MyrddinFyre (Member # 2576) on :
quote: I remember seeing an ad for Passion of the Christ and thinking it was going to turn out to be a Visa ad.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
I generally tune out the Truth ads, but I listened to the one I heard today about the flavored cigarettes. At the end, the guy talks about how the flavors were real ideas cigarette manufacturers came up with, in 1972.
Holy cow, stop the presses! 34 years ago cigarette manufacturers had a crazy idea! Thank goodness I know that, because I was totally going to start smoking, but now, forget it.
The only way those ads would work is if they come out with a new Truth ad, in which they tell us that all the other Truth ads were designed by an ad agency with mental defects due to smoking. If smoking makes you think up moronic ads, I can see how you might want to avoid it. Nobody wants to be that lame.
Posted by Tinros (Member # 8328) on :
quote:Originally posted by pooka: I guess this past monday marked 5 years that I haven't watched network TV apart from the Olympics. I remember seeing an ad for Passion of the Christ and thinking it was going to turn out to be a Visa ad.
For Eternal Salvation, there's Jesus Christ. For everything else, there's MasterCard(R).
In all seriousness, I don't really have an opinion as to smoking ads, but as to the "coolness" factor, I stay away from people who smoke. I refuse to date or kiss a smoker, and I won't ever marry one. I, personally, will never smoke. My mom smoked while she was pregnant with me and my sister, and we both ended up having rpetty serious asthma and other problems because of it. Luckily, neither of us were born addicted to nicotine, but the doctor said that was rare, and it helped that our dad forced my mom to cut back on smoking while she was pregnant.
Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :
quote:
quote:thetruth ads are horrible. What do the evils committed by tobacco companies thirty years ago have to do with whether or not I should smoke?
I use the same justifications for why I don't vote. [Wink]
I don't understand what you're trying to say. I also find the fact that you don't vote suprising. Or does the wink mean you don't mean it? *is confused*
As for smoking ads, I don't think they convince anybody that isn't convinced already. Their over the topness seems counterproductive.
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mrs.M: I just saw one about how smoking increases belly fat in teens (which I don't know that I believe) and I found it incredibly offensive. Basically, the ad was, "Look how disgusting fat teens are. Don't smoke or you'll be fat and disgusting, too." It was just plain cruel.
That's horrible!
I saw an ad yesterday for some stop smoking product that kept saying things like, "Bikinis or bronchitis? Size 8 or lung cancer?" It was all about how apparently, a lot of women put of quitting smoking because they're afraid they'll lose weight, and Product X helps them lose less weight, or something. I thought that one was bad enough.
-pH
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
Most people gain weight when they quit smoking.
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
I know that, but the way they presented the commercial made me sad. I'm not sure why.
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Man, I cracked up worse than that egg watching that.
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