Legal Battle Over, Truth Campaign to Continue
Yesterday, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in favor of the American Legacy Foundation in a legal battle stating the Foundation's Truth campaign does not vilify or personally attack tobacco companies and their employees as claimed by the Lorillard Tobacco Company. While this certainly is a very good thing, we hope someone, anyone will get rid of the whole inane radical hipster-ish approach the Foundation has used in its recent campaign in favor of something...anything...different.
Comments
You're absolutely right about changing the ads. The ads don't make any sense. Can't they come up with a better reason not to smoke then the fact that an executive made a joke in 1985 about people dying in their sleep. I assume that all executives make fun of me but that doesn't keep me out of McDonalds, or WalMart.
To be fair all of the treatment centers that the guy goes to in the latest ad to seek treatment for M&Ms or jogging, won't treat a ciggarette addiction either.
That's great that the truth is going to live on. Their commercials are great. I think that the first spot,zephyer, was a good one. To say that the tobacco industry knew that cigarettes caused cancer in the 50s shows just how bad these tobacco executives are.
The TRUTH ads are ridiculous, IMO.
Demonizing corporate executives isn't convincing. Explaining just how addictive tobacco is would be.
Every time I see the ad showing the guy seeking help for his jogging and M&M addiction, I can't help but wonder what the response of the rehab clinics would be if he were trying to quit smoking.
Yes, smoking is terribly addictive - I know this firsthand, but making jokes about candy addiction doesn't convey that message.
Rather than attack tobacco companies, they should point out real life situations that smokers go through - being stuck in a meeting at the office and not being able to concentrate because you just want to go outside and have a smoke, being stuck in social situations, such as after-dinner conversations in a restaurant and just wanting to go outside to smoke, having to make a trip to your local drug dealer (convenience store) to spend $40 to feed your habit for another week.
Don't gloat and act like school-children taunting "nanny-nanny-boo-boo" as smokefreecolorado.org has done since the smoking ban passed in Colorado has done. (Their commercial features a lobster cutting someone's cigarette and a water dispenser putting out another cigarette in a bar setting). Such commercials may make anti-smokers feel better, but they do nothing but piss off smokers and only add to the forbidden fruit aspect for young people who may not be addicted yet.
Point out the short-term health hazards. Young smokers feel immortal and cancer or emphysema seem a million years away - they're sure they'll quit long before that happens, but often quitting tomorrow is always the answer, and tomorrow is always another day away.
Show real smokers who wish they didn't get winded from climbing a few flights of stairs, who regret spending thousands of dollars to feed their addiction, and who feel it is a pain in the butt to have to go out of their way just to "shoot up" and feed their jones.