Continuing its illogical idiocy, the Truth campaign has dredged up yet another decades old quote from a “tobacco company executive” who is now likely dead if not certainly retired. This executive, in response to a claim smoking cigarettes during pregnancy can lead to low birth weight said, “…some women would prefer smaller babies.”
This is idiotic on so many levels. First, it’s an anachronism from 1971. Times have changed and no human with a brain in their head would ever say that today. If this ad ran in 1971, it would make sense. Today, it’s a complete disconnect. Attempting to slam a tobacco company for something someone said 37 years ago is just stupid. Second, maybe women did and still do want smaller babies. After all, who really wants to squeeze out a 15 pound fattie? Maybe the guy was repeating something he heard while drunk at a cocktail party and it was taken totally out of context.
Does any kid today really care what some old fart said before they were even born? While these ads try to make powerful statements using actual statements, they fall flat because the statements are from an entirely different era which has no relevance to a kid today who’s considering smoking. Oh they make for nice ad concepts but all they do is elicit blanks stares sort of like the one on the girl in this very commercial. You can just hear her think, “What the fuck is he talking about?”
If Truth really wants to be relevant and create a powerful campaign that will resonate (oph how I hate that word) with today’s youth, they’ll have to become a lot more like PETA adopting that organization’s investigative stealth.
