stop government advertising!

Shayne is only 21 but already she is sick to death of taxpayer funded government advertising – particularly the grossly expensive ‘nanny’ advertisements that our cash-strapped public health system trots out with alarming regularity that nobody pays any attention to.

"Thousands of people are in long waiting lists for all manner of urgent surgeries and medications and I can’t believe that we allow the government to waste millions on this health advertising crap," says Shayne. "Where do these people get off? Has the government no sense of perspective?"

"I am appalled that governments everywhere spend so much money preaching to us about sinful stuff – smoking, drinking, driving, gambling, drugs, sex, overeating, etc – and in bombarding us with these ‘health’ advertisements they are, in effect, advertising the stuff to us!”

“At the same time," says Shayne, "governments rake in millions from taxing these ‘sins’; then they increase the consumption of alcohol by legislating for 24/7 liquor outlets; and, thanks to the War on Terror, the poppy fields of Afghanistan are once again back in full bloom and our kids are dying on the killing fields over there as well as in heroin overdoes at home."

"Hello? Am I the only person to put two and two together?"

"Anti-sin propaganda is really advertising the ‘sin’, make no mistake about it," says Shayne. "Any publicity, good or bad, IS publicity and keeps the product in the minds of consumers."

Read more from Shayne on this subject:

education or propaganda?

gory tobacco ads

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two-faced health warnings

anti-smoking propaganda or hook?

Shayne is 21, a student and a smoker, who maintains that all the anti-smoking propaganda that has bombarded her generation since birth has not been a deterrent but has actually been a ‘hook’ to get kids addicted to a legally purchased product from which the government rakes in a lot of ‘sin’ money.

"The government deliberately makes those graphic warnings on cigarette packs ridiculous because it knows smokers won't believe them," says Shayne. "It wants to keep us hooked.”

“To non-smokers, it looks like the government is the good guy, doing the right thing, but it's not."

"If it weren't so serious I'd be laughing at these pathetic attempts to stop me smoking -- or keep me hooked," says Shayne. "What are they going to try next? Are they going to waste more public funds -- most of which is provided by the exorbitant taxes smokers pay -- to give us auditory scares as well as visual ones.”

“Will I open my pack one day and be greeted by the sound of a terminal cough?"

"Every time an anti-smoking or a quit product advertisement appears on TV I automatically reach for a cigarette," laughs Shayne, "and I bet those advertisements have the same effect on all the poor, deluded suckers trying to quit."

"Governments make more money from cigarette taxes than from any other type of tax," says Shayne, "and they know exactly what they are doing with all of their hypocritical anti-smoking propaganda."

"It's the cleverest bit of reverse psychology I've ever seen," laughs Shayne. "Sure, I'm a sucker for getting hooked but what chance did I have as a kid to work out what that anti-smoking education was really all about?"

Read more from Shayne on this subject:

two-faced health warnings

stop government advertising!

gory tobacco ads

education or propaganda?