The current anti-smoking campaign with the cigarettes full of lard is truly disgusting. But do you think it's a waste of time? Will it actually affect anybody's decision to smoke or not?

I agree! the lard dripping cigs ad, bit on the gross side, but remarkably enough I still went out and bought a packet of fags (still seething cos I dropped a brand new pack of 20s somewhere)
To be honest giving up cigs is not about patches and gum or any other little devices its mainly about willpower and you have to really want to give up.
No adverts about gungy arteries and people with lung cancer are going to really stop me. I knew about all the risks before I started smoking and my dad is a 40 a day man. I only smoke about 10 in a week so not quite at his level yet...but hopefully dont intend to get that bad! (but then neither did he!)
When I feel the need to stop I will do as I stopped a while ago for a good year but started again *bad girl* and no shock tactic adverts are really going to persuade me either way.

I just flick the channel or minimise my TV window if that advert comes on.

I smoke and it doesn't put me off. Waste of time if you ask me. I will give up smoking when I want and am ready to.

Smoking has a way of making you give up anyway. Terminally.

I wonder if anyone has any figures relating to deaths from smoking.

Most of the people I know have got ill after they have given up smoking.

The ads don't seem to bother my husband, nor do the ever larger statements on the packets.

Moon

The one warning on the fag packs i've seen, which made me chuckle, was something like "smoking makes your willy smaller".

Maybe some TV ads based on this theory would be quite successful!

well the signs on the fag packets and the ads did it for me, i wanted to quit anyway but they pushed me to doin it for defo. thay are awful, i cant watch em cos theyre gross but they work. its been a month now, cold turkey! the only way to do it i think.
god i feel so much better for it aswell! its amazing.gotta warn u though, the awful stuff i was coughing up for about 2 weeks when i stopped. I was so ill. but feel ten times better for it now.
linds

I think it helps non smokers stay that way!

In a burst of irony, I'm cutting back on the level of fatty and junk foods I'm eating because that fatty stuff has to come from somewhere right...

Never smoked in my life but I could almost hear National Heart Foundation screaming blue murder that the anti-smoking lobby used that idea before they could...

:rolleyes:

Because it has been such a success in Canada I believe, there has been thought that as well as the warnings...now in bigger print to further impress upon you the implications of your habit...they are going to put pictures of diseased organs...and no I dont mean Whirlitzers :wink: ...onto the packs to attempt to put people off smoking.

Somehow I cant see it making much of a difference. As a race we are blessed with ignorance, we'll take one look at the pictures and think, "ah that'll never happen to me".

In my experience people give up smoking either
a. because they want to, you cant force someone to give up, it doesnt work. trust me I know!
b. close to deaths door, in which case they only continue to smoke cos they're nearly on the way out anyway!

Originally posted by Mosherchik
I only smoke about 10 in a week

So the last Forum do must have lasted 2 weeks then ;)


As an ex-smoker no tv ads stopped me from smoking and never would. It was holding a new life in my arms (ah) and realising that this little being was 100% dependent on me that made all the difference. I wanted to be around to see my kids grow up and hopefully giving up smoking would give me a better chance of this.

The ads may act as a deterrent for stopping people from starting though.

I've never smoked in my life and after seeing those ads, I'm glad I've got my head screwwed on right...

After discussing the ads with a friend of mine who smokes, he said that when the ads come on, he switches them off! :o So I told him its only because he knows he's doing more harm than good and when he realises just how much he's harming himself he's going to worry!

Despite the banning of tobacco related advertising, more people smoke these days proportionally to when I was young. In my teenage years, only a couple of the girls in my circle of friends smoked, now more teenage girls seem to smoke than boys. I would say that smokers do not take notice of the ads, but banning cigarette advertising doesn't seem to have made any difference either.

Originally posted by Lickable
I think it helps non smokers stay that way!
Agreed! I don't smoke and that gungy artery advert makes me feel sick!

I dont smoke, but those adverts make me feel ill, glad that i dont smoke even more now!

My grandad stopped smoking over a year ago now, he cant bear to watch them either, makes his stomach turn! Dont know whether thats keepin him away from the fags or whether its just thats eeewy! hehe

I think people will still smoke, or give up for other reasons than just seeing that ad tho!!

I really don't think they're going to be effective in making smokers quit. People are going to continue smoking despite warnings because it's an addiction.. It's not as easy as these government schemes like to make out. Everyone knows the risks, it's up to them whether they want to continue smoking or not.

As a non-smoker, they just further increase the reasoning why I'd never start. I've never been interested in smoking, and it's unlikely I'll ever try.. Volunteering to inhale smoke just isn't my idea of fun somehow.! It does make me feel sorry for people when I see the side-effects that are shown on the TV adverts though.

Originally posted by Foxxx
I smoke and it doesn't put me off. Waste of time if you ask me. I will give up smoking when I want and am ready to.

What about the non-smokers who are forced to breath in your smoke. Don't they get a say in the matter?

[
As for anti-smoking camapigns I think they would have more sucess with young peopleif they empahsised the negative image of smoking rather than the health effect. Ie, smoking is common, unsexy,vulgar etc.

If only smokers knew what non-smokers are saying about them behind their backs .........

Originally posted by slimsid2000
[

If only smokers knew what non-smokers are saying about them behind their backs .........

well, i'm a non smoker and i don't say anything behind their backs, and i have a bigger axe to grind than most as both my dad and grandad died of smoking related illnesses. smokers don't bother me because i can't afford to drink in pubs very often and i eat in non-smoking areas of pubs/restaurants when i can afford to spoil myself. i hardly think that smokers make much difference to the air i breathe outside, which is already heavily polluted by industry amd motor vehicles.

anyway, more young people smoke than ever, despite the lack of advertising telling them how 'cool' it is to smoke, so what exactly is the answer?

Originally posted by Killian
anyway, more young people smoke than ever, despite the lack of advertising telling them how 'cool' it is to smoke, so what exactly is the answer?

Make tobacco illegal in my view. Even though there would undoubtedly be a black market how many people would dare smoke in public if doing so meant a fine or imprisonment.

Before anyone says this is unfair to smokers, I don't care. My ONLY concern is my own health and I feel this is the best way to protect myself from passive smoking.

Originally posted by slimsid2000
Make tobacco illegal in my view. Even though there would undoubtedly be a black market how many people would dare smoke in public if doing so meant a fine or imprisonment.

Before anyone says this is unfair to smokers, I don't care. My ONLY concern is my own health and I feel this is the best way to protect myself from passive smoking.

you must spend a hell of a lot of your life in pubs if you are worried about passive smoking. smoking is banned in my workplace, in the works canteen, all restaurants i frequent, and many pubs have no smoking areas. could you please explain where exactly you are subjected to all this passive smoking? I have been a non-smoker for 25 years now (yes, I did smoke in my senseless teenage years, but gave up), and I rarely notice people smoking unless they actually blow it in my face. you appear to be obsessed by it.

Originally posted by slimsid2000
Make tobacco illegal in my view. Even though there would undoubtedly be a black market how many people would dare smoke in public if doing so meant a fine or imprisonment.

I frequently smoke in public.

So you'd be quite happy for this country and the taxpayers to foot the bill for £8bn in lost revenue, meanwhile putting that £8bn in the hands of organised crime, without changing the smoking stats an iota and starving the NHS of badly needed smokers taxes.

Before anyone says this is unfair to smokers, I don't care. My ONLY concern is my own health and I feel this is the best way to protect myself from passive smoking.

No, by the sound of it, the best way to protect yourself from passive smoking would be to actually stop breathing.

There's a program on Fox called "Bull****", with Penn and Teller, which roundly debunked the passive smoking = harmful theory.

As for the adverts, they are assuming that people don't know that smoking is bad for them.

Originally posted by Call_Me_Sue
There's a program on Fox called "Bull****", with Penn and Teller, which roundly debunked the passive smoking = harmful theory.

Ahh, Penn & Teller. The two cornerstones of any sensible current affairs debate.

Hmmm.

Originally posted by jackthedog
Ahh, Penn & Teller. The two cornerstones of any sensible current affairs debate.

Hmmm.

Hmm, that doesn't worry me so much as the fact it was on Fox, a network known for its hard hitting objective investigations and news...

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
Hmm, that doesn't worry me so much as the fact it was on Fox, a network known for its hard hitting objective investigations and news...
*cracks the whip twice*
Get back to work I tell thee!!! :P

Originally posted by jackthedog
Ahh, Penn & Teller. The two cornerstones of any sensible current affairs debate.

Hmmm.



Ad Homminem attacks. Way to go.

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
Hmm, that doesn't worry me so much as the fact it was on Fox, a network known for its hard hitting objective investigations and news...


And it was only on Fox here in the UK. The original broadcasts in America were on "Showtime".