Opinions - I saw this anti-smoking thing on HBO- alot of bullshit

[izzy31]

I was just looking for something to kill time, and was watching this thing on HBO about how bad smoking is, and it was designed for children yes, but the point is that alot of what they were saying was inaccurate and not all true.

They asked several kids their opinions on smoking, and they all appeared real and not actors. The funny thing is they all gave pretty good statements and a few of those things shut the interviewer right up. It looks like these kids are mature and appear to be quite educated about the dangers of smoking. They say they understand all of the possible dangers and health issues it can lead to, but just like any other smoker you'd ask, they do it anyway. My point here is that although it's said that the tobacco company targets children and tries to get specifically kids smoking, about all of these kids never said they started because of an ad they saw, and almost all of them never said anything about being turned on to smoking by the tobacco company itself. (almost with the exeption of 2 girls who said they know they're being targeted by the tobacco co.) If they really are trying to get kids hooked, they don't need to make any type of advertising that appeals especially to kids, and could probably save a bundle from cutting back on the whole special advertising thing, or maybe just getting rid of stuff that's considered kid-appealing to avoid the whole ordeal.

Something I thought was weird was that the program was filmed in 1996. I didn't know that until it was over, but why would they bother showing something out-of-date and 10 years old....? All the info it gave could easily be inaccurate with 10 years of changes. Something about the anti-smoking campaigns that people might have noticed is they sometimes appear to over-emphasize the harms of smoking. This was shown humorously in a halarious episode of the show "South Park". The people were against smoking and did outrageous things to get people not to smoke- the producers were really refering to how they put too much time and effort into such programs, even where it isn't needed.

I believe that perhaps they thought if documentaries made much more recent might not be as convincing or have the persuading effect on kids the older ones had.

I'm probably just paranoid, but it's something I guess it's worth being paranoid about/over.

[x cynic x]

freedom. activists should let people make decisions for themselves & do what they want, instead of trying to cram their noses up peoples ass cracks. people die anyway, face it.

[Bajeda]

While ads may not get people to directly start smoking and people won't agree that advertisements (both obvious and inconspicuous ones) were an influence on their decision to start smoking, you have to consider the third person effect.

I don't agree with campaigns totally attacking smoking, but I don't agree with heavily advertising smoking either.

I don't want to get into all the topics that are related to this subject, but please look at the scientific evidence regarding the effects of media on people. Smoking ads have more of an influence than you think, though probably not as much as many anti-smoking campaigns say they do. You may not agree with many opinions expressed in these campaigns, but at least look at the research behind their ideas. Not all of it is fallacy or biassed or deceptively quoted.