Graphic, Repulsive Anti-Smoking Ads: Are They Effective?
Nowadays there are disturbing images on cigarette packets, pictures and illustrations that hit you right between the eyes even before you tear the tiny plastic seal and unwrap the box. Yet every day, children take up smoking and are able to bypass the images, open the pack, and place cigarette after cigarette between their tender lips.
Through the years I’ve noticed that the anti-smoking ads are becoming increasingly more graphic. Yet, it seems to me that younger and younger children are continuing to take up smoking as a full-time hobby.
Nowadays there are disturbing images on cigarette packets, pictures and illustrations that hit you right between the eyes even before you tear the tiny plastic seal and unwrap the box. Yet every day, children take up smoking and are able to bypass the images, open the pack, and place cigarette after cigarette between their tender lips.
My question is, are these pictures effective in their aim to repulse potential smokers, or are they just futile smoke screens that preach to the already converted non-smokers. Here are some examples of anti-smoking ads taken from various countries which would’ve turned me off cigarettes, were I a smoker. Are you a smoker? Do they work for you?
Even if I hadn’t realised how awful throat cancer can be, this image would’ve certainly deterred me from opening up my first pack. Is this harsh enough to make one quit, or is this type of cancer not dangerous enough? After all, you could have surgery, right. And even though you may not be able to speak or swallow, smoking may still be possible.
A lot of times, if their looks are threatened, people (especially younger people) will heed the message. Some folk may not mind not being able to speak, but if they’re told that their attractiveness may be compromised, resulting in them being repulsive to the opposite sex or to people in general, this will hit home. However, yet again, the images of affected body parts seem to go unnoticed.
Quite often, pictures depicting adults are unsuccessful in touching the heart because of what could be perceived as the lack of innocence. However, images of kids being affected by smoking cannot possibly go unnoticed. Can we bear to see depictions of kids like this without making a positive decision to quit smoking totally? Evidently, even these images which advertisers and non-smoking organisations now use, go unnoticed by people intent on destroying their own lives. The image immediately above this paragraph was advertised in Brazil to depict that smoking causes miscarriages. This resulted in a public uproar because many people thought it was way too harsh.
This is a British ad which an American politician thought was so offensive, he would not even allow his aides to see it. Personally, I can’t see his point. Is it okay to depict children suffocating in ‘plastic bags’ of smoke but not to tell men that smoking damages their health? I can’t see how the above ad would go unnoticed by men who smoke. Maybe there is a general consensus that, ‘It won’t happen to me.’ There are also a number of other ads in the UK warning young men that smoking slows and hinders their sperm count.
What a poignant image, a not-so-subtle way to illustrate the hook that smoking has on addicts. These images were on large billboards in England and sparked quite a number of heated debates. Were they too crude or not? This question has not yet been answered. The real debate is not whether these ads are too graphic, but whether they’re successful in bringing the message home to their target audience. I know they’ve had a lasting impact on me.
So, how about you? Does any of them work for you?
18 Comments
I personally don’t think these adverts have much effect at all – in fact I think that they make many people roll their eyes and get annoyed that their taxes are being used to creating them. Everyone in the western world now knows the dangers of smoking yet some still choose to do it. Smoking related statistics are massively exaggerated or fiddled to create a certain statistic and more people are becoming aware of this and thus choosing to ignore warnings (at their own peril for some). I think if the government just ignored smoking it would gradually be seen as something that old people do and would eventually fade from public consciousness, especially now that bans exist pretty much everywhere (at least in Britain and the US). This is the best way to “de-cool” smoking in my opinion, rather than create ad after ad demonising the habit so that people are confronted with smoking in their face everyday. By constantly telling teens not to do it and how bad it is for them they are appealing to instincts that many teenagers the world over have – curiosity and rebellion.
I concur – kids look at these articles, but see that as way in the future, perhaps they think they will quit long before anything like that happens to them. After all, kids are invincible!
My mom died of lung cancer. It was horrible! The really sad thing was the guilt that she felt for having smoked since her teen years. She felt like she deserved it.
As it’s been its been said, smoking is an addictions, therefore, to the long-life smokers these advertiserment are probably useless. However, if I were considering picking up this deadly habit and saw these ads, I would be more inclined not to smoke. Overall, I don’t think the ads are really effective. Nice topic for discoussion.
Oops! I hit enter before I made my corrections.
I’m afraid that they don’t work. When I started smoking, typical “scare tactics” were to show pictures of smokers’ lungs. I was repulsed enough to remember it, but not enough to turn down a friend’s offer; “everybody” smoked, and I wanted to fit in. I really did figure I would quit before it got to that point for me.
The biggest influence on kid’s choice to start smoking is whether their own parents smoke. Even seeing my own dad coughing up blood didn’t stop me!
The good news for me is, I did quit. Again, it was peer pressure. My own roommate went cold turkey, and at the same time I moved into a different crowd… including a guy I liked who didn’t smoke! We’re married now, and our kids don’t smoke either.
I don’t think these ads are effective in helping to deter people from smoking. After all, these are pictures, and most would think that the pictures are photoshopped!
The only thing that would make a different is when they are personally dealing or seeing someone close to them going through this ordeal..
I really don’t know if the warnings help or not but the warnings and pictures of deseased lungs did help me,my husband,brother in laws and sister to stop so it was helpful to my family. Now I have one son who doesn’t smoke and two who do smoke. One grandson who smokes and two who do not.
These are really scary pictures…………. You can only pray that people will make the best decisions for their health.
Blessings.
Sincerely,
-Liane Schmidt.
Some of these photos turned my stomach and I don’t smoke (and wouldn’t start having seen these). For the truly addicted smoker they don’t always have an effect unfortunately but smoking causes so much illness perhaps the only way to reach people and encourage them to stop is to publish adverts like these. Thought provoking article.
My mother died of COPD caused by smoking, anorexia, over-work, and a dusty, smoky environment. She said to me what I was a fairly young teen that since she smoked, she couldn’t tell me not to. It was the best thing she ever did for me; it took away any desire I might possibly have had to take up the habit. Two of my children smoke; the oldest does not. Life is puzzling that way.
Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. I think the consensus is that the ads do not work?
I think that these adds would dissuade me from buying a pack of cigarettes next year (I can legally buy them in the U.S. once I’m 18) The pictures are gross and they get to what can actually happen if you decide to smoke. It’s like paying to kill yourself if you ask me. I think it depends on who you are if the ads are going to work or not.
another I like,
We don’t have anything like these here in the states…I wish we did. The problem is that kids don’t think along these lines. They think it can’t happen to them, only to “old people”. Most kids start smoking because of peer pressure. They want to “belong”, “fit in” and if that’s what everyone else is doing…they want to do it, too.
These pics are extremely graphic and unsettling. I think Jan and I would’ve quit years before we did if cigarette manufacturers here in the U.S. placed ads like these on packs of cigarettes. How nasty! I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2007 and it had spread into my throat and covered my left vocal cord. The doctors couldn’t say for sure if it was caused by years of smoking or not.
I’m so thankful we both quit.
Great article Anne!
I just looked at them again. They’re worse than the “black lungs” I saw a a kid. More “unsexy,” too. I think they might have worked.
I think pictures like this work. In my countyr (Lithuania) there are no pictures, only words how smoking is bad. Are your from US? You can participate in a survey, which I found and see how many people don’t smoke: http://sogood.net/smoker
I’ve quit smoking cause of the throat cancer pic!! Took away any joy i had about smoking and only felt disgust… think they are the best idea ever!
To be honest Anne, I don’t know these ads have much influence on a persons smoking habits or not. The person has to want to give up I believe. However I think they provide education on the extremes of being a smoker and may deter young people starting out. Nice work.
RJ