Anti-smoking shock ads

[Zorak]

I started rolling to save some pennies; but now I won't smoke anything else. The only feasible way I might smoke cigarettes now is if I am getting on it and pay the £9 to get a small pack out of those stupid machines

 

[satinbutterfly]

As a former smoker I can tell you an ad on TV or on a billboard wouldn't have made me quit. I think it's probably aimed more as scare tactics for those who don't smoke or teens who are at risk of starting.

 

[36gamer]

I've never smoked before, so I wouldn't know from personal experience, but all of these ads seem very ineffective. Smoking is something that people quit when they quit (No really =p), not because of some advertisement. The only way these ads are even slightly effective are towards non-smokers who are considering smoking, but I would think cases of them being effective would be rare even in that sense. The only way to stop smoking is self-realization, and that is never achieved from these advertisements. It can sometimes happen as a result of others that the individual knows trying to convince him/her to stop, but that is only effective on some people. Most people who smoke want to stop smoking. They just don't have the will power or the time and energy to stop. Once I saw this one anti-smoking commercial that was encouraging (encouraging to keep trying to quit even after failure) rather trying to be convincing of smoking being bad, and I thought it seemed to be much more effective. It involved various people doing different physical activities that smoking had kept them from doing efficiently before. They talked about how they always tried to quit and were never able to, but every time they tried to quit they found out more about their addiction and how to more easily rid of it. It was basically encouraging people to not get discouraged when trying to quit smoking and showing the better life of being smoke free. It is things like that that I think are the most effective.

 

[Johnfromokc]

The biggest incentive to quit is price. By gradually squeezing the tobacco industry with taxes,the price of smoking ends up unattractive.

This is true - but people still smoke - and it's usually the paycheck-to-paycheck workers with no health insurance that do it here in the U.S. It's a tax on ther decision to inhale tobacco smoke into their lungs.

Check out U.S. cigarette prices:

51. West Virginia: $4.74
50. Louisiana: $4.82
49. North Dakota: $4.91
48. Kentucky: $4.97
47. Idaho: $4.99
46. California: $5.19
45. Alabama: $5.27
44. Georgia: $5.29
43. South Carolina: $5.42
41-42. Indiana, Wyoming: $5.50
40. North Carolina: $5.51
38-39. Nebraska, Virginia: $5.55
37. Tennessee: $5.56
36. Missouri: $5.58
35. Oregon: $5.59
34. Mississippi: $5.75
33. New Hampshire: $5.87
32. Nevada: $5.95
30-31. Arkansas, Colorado: $5.96
29. Montana: $5.99
26-28. Delaware, Iowa, Kansas: $6.00
25. South Dakota: $6.03
24. Texas: $6.07
23. Florida: $6.08
22. Oklahoma: $6.19
21. Ohio: $6.22
20. Minnesota: $6.53
19. Maryland: $6.70
18. Pennsylvania: $6.80
17. Arizona: $6.87
16. New Mexico: $6.88
15. Michigan: $6.90
14. Utah: $7.22
13. Maine: $7.97
12. Washington, D.C.: $7.99
11. Wisconsin: $8.11
10. Vermont: $8.23
9. Connecticut: $8.25
8. Massachusetts: $8.30
7. New Jersey: $8.35
6. Rhode Island: $8.60
5. Alaska: $9.14
4. Illinois: $9.67
3. Hawaii: $9.73
2. Washington: $9.89
1. New York: $11.90

I remember when the price exceeded 50 cents it pissed me off and when it reached $1.00 I eventually refused to pay it. I quit 23 years ago mainly because I knew it was detrimental to my health - and incidentally, the public service information of the time did educate me to the dangers and disease processes caused by smoking along with my own fathers emphysema and pancreatic cancer that ultimately killed him at age 61.

As to the ads - I like them. They are paid for with the tobacco lawsuit settlement funds so the tobacco companies have essentially been forced to pay for them. I would not care if tobacco companies were also forced to pay the health care bills of tobacco related illnesses like lung cancer and COPD.

 

[Panacea]

12 bucks!!! *thinks of a Dave Attell joke* lol...for 5 bucks more I could do crack!

I just hate seeing people pitiful and sick, even if it's their own fault :s

I have no idea why people smoke. It makes no sense to me; very little benefit it would seem. But then again I'm not addicted to it.

 

[Kyle B]

I guess I should move if I wanna smoke lol.

When I worked in a supermarket, people were constantly complaining about cigarette prices. This is when they hovered around $8 or so.