June 25, 2010

gory tobacco ads


Shayne, 21, doesn’t know whether to laugh with derision or cry with fury at those gory and misleading anti-tobacco ads that the government funds with so much taxpayer money from the health budget that it has scant left to spend on real health problems.

"Why do smokers need graphic images of the most rare and ridiculous looking complaints that, for all I know, are not even related to smoking?" asks Shayne. “And why are smokers being targeted and drinkers, overeaters, druggies and everyone else doing something ‘risky’ is being left alone to ‘sin’ in peace?”

“What on earth is it about smoking that brings out such venom and contempt in our health professionals?”

“These ads are ridiculous because they attribute to tobacco use every conceivable complaint imaginable – except obesity – as if nothing else harms your health!”

"On the last pack of cigarettes I bought there was an image of a man with a huge, ugly, fleshy red tumor growing on his neck," says Shayne. "Whether it's a real image or a composite is beside the point. I want to know how in hell this tumor is related to smoking?"

"Then there’s the image of a guy with rotten teeth,” laughs Shayne. “Sure, if you binge on sugar, don't brush your teeth or visit a dentist then you're going to get rotten teeth, but what has that got to do with smoking?"

"The gory lung cancer image is obviously from someone who worked down a coal mine for fifty years,” says Shayne, “and the image of gangrenous toes looks like more like the result of diabetes or hospital neglect than smoking cigarettes – and if the government wastes any more of taxpayer funds on these stupid ads then expect to see a lot more of gangrenous toes and other neglect.”

“If the images were the slightest bit realistic then someone might believe the warnings," sighs Shayne. “So, what is the government really trying to do by making them so stupid?”

“No smoker pays any attention to these gory images,” says Shayne, “and I have no idea what ‘substance’ the people who made these gory ads were taking, but I’d imagine it was something a hell of a lot more harmful than tobacco.”

Read more from Shayne on this subject:


  • two-faced health warnings
  • stop government advertising!
  • anti-smoking propaganda or hook?
  • education or propaganda?
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