Kids who are under the impression that smoking is cool or glamorous will be confronted by a very different reality.I'm sorry, but did this woman ever attend high school? Or even watch Mad Men? Smoking has always been marketed as an epitomizing aspect of "cool", illustrated by sultry 1920s starlets, Marlboro frontiersmen, and Joe Kool camel. Cigarette companies promoted their product as such because it worked. The images of leather-wearing badasses, industrious cowboys, and enterprising businessman won't fade as fast as Ms. Hamburg probably imagines.
As far as kids, the intellectual class once again shows its distance from everyday life. Teenagers use smoking as an indicator of their anti-establishment cred, perhaps the most important quality of teenage "cool." Further, the notion that scare tactics such as packaging will undermine teenage cigarette use appears tenuous at best. Teenagers are known for their lack of future time orientation and most will choose in-the-moment social benedictions conferred upon smokers over protecting themselves from lung cancer in their 40s. A gross image won't do too much to dampen this teenage recklessness.
In the end, is this a bad idea? No, but I just don't think it will do much of anything. Plus, if someone doesn't know smoking is unhealthy by now, then maybe we should just hand them a Darwin Award and skip the graphic labels.
49 comments:
Smoking isn't cool though. It used to be, true, but in the wake of the anti-smoking crusade of the 90's it is now just a nasty thing that certain low-class types still do. The world of a smoker is now the world of excusing themselves so they can huddle a minimum of 40 feet away from a public entrance to get their cancer-stick fix. Most of the glamorizing ads are now banned. Smoking in the movies is now confined to villains, and affects the rating and content advisory. And unless I've heard wrong, the number of smokers has decreased significantly over the last couple of decades.
In my home state of KY, many former tobacco farmers have turned to other crops, due to the decline in the market. My old hometown used to have a tobacco festival every year, but I think they quit doing it a few years ago. It's not a good time to be in the smoking industry.
The rise of fitness mania (=another type of coolness) has, I think, contributed to the decrease in smoking among men.
When I was a teenager my girlfriends and I were sitting outside smoking and some guy walked by and said, "Oh ladies, look at you, you're so cool." I remember feeling kind of silly and I never really smoked much after that.
Keep on telling yourself that, Matt.
Meanwhile, your girl and your sister fantasize about smelling Budweiser and menthols and alpha pheromones one last time.
The one nice thing about smoking is that it was something for women to do besides eat. It takes a lot of self discipline to not snack all the time.
What dopes. I'm sure the graphic labels will make smoking seem *more* cool because of the grossness and the "sticking it to square adults" angle because they're trying so hard to make smoking uncool.
What they really need to do is emphasize all the fat middle aged losers that are the real smoking demographic and show how actually gross and uncool they are. Really hammering on how most male impotence is caused by smoking would help, as well. If the message got out there more that cigarettes = "I want a limp dick" that might actually do something.
In my town (but I suppose it's duplicated everywhere) there's a radio and billboard campaign that tries to use peer pressure to get kids to stop smoking and drinking by pointing out that 70% of kids in this county don't drink and 90% of them don't smoke. I don't know the exact numbers, but the point is that the majority don't smoke or drink, and kids are supposed to want to go with the crowd to be cool, right?
I can't help wondering if these people were grown in pods, or maybe shipped in from outer space at 20 years old. Clearly they were never teenagers, or they'd know that there's nothing "cool" about being in the majority. If you want to be cool, more often than not you gravitate toward a niche group -- stoners, goth kids, jocks, whatever. The kids in those groups consider themselves the pinnacle of coolness, and if smoking is part of that group's lifestyle, it won't matter whether every other kid in school thinks it's idiotic.
Every time I see one of those billboards, I think of the Fonz. The way he dressed and lived stuck out like a sore thumb, and he never spent a moment trying to fit in or worrying about what other people thought of his lifestyle (at least in the early seasons). Yet (or more likely because of that) he was practically the definition of cool in that generation.
It annoys me when people imply that the "coolness" of smoking is solely the result of predatory marketing campaigns by cigarette companies. You know why smoking is cool? Because I'm blowing smoke of my fucking mouth; I'm like a dragon or something. Smoking is inherently cool, which is why it has proved so appealing to almost every culture that has encountered it.
Smoking and being a nazi are the only two sins left in school. One is better for your own health, the other probably better for the health of society at large.
Boosh!!
oh, and ayn rand.
They would probably have more success if they took up the Onions fictional "Smoking is Gay" campaign.
As a former smoker, let me tell you -- smoking is the coolest thing in the world. And nothing gets as cool as talking with a chick, she asks me something with those big, rapt eyes. I take a drag, pierce her with my wry gaze and think for a sec, exhale the smoke, and reply. She is awestruck before my unfathomable coolnes.
The tobacco industry was my best wingman.
But I smoked smart. Started in my early 20s, thus didn't hamper my physical development during my puberty and teen years. And quit in my early 30s, when smoking became a drag (pun intended) as my youthful immortality expired. Smoking past 32 or so saps you of your energy, makes you cough a lot, and gives you a sickly pallor.
Also, one of the best ways to learn an insolent woman is to grab her delicate wrists in your Captains of Crush grip and pretend you're going to put it out on her hand.
They giggle, and later orgasm, so.
In a culture of narcissism, people will smoke while young to make the statement you mention, and then also want to sue when they're 45 and can't breathe. This woman has to pretend she's earning her salary.
@Lara: I do that almost every night in San Francisco. I call up my Valley Girl voice and go, "Smoking's so cool!" The best is when they take it literally.
PA is Marlowe.
It's interesting to me that anti-smoking propaganda never mentions the cosmetic effect on women. Any phsycian will tell you that smoking robs the skin of oxygen, often resulting in premature aging, especially for women. Almost everyone knows a woman smoker who's 28 but looks 40. A woman who finished near the top of my law school class had that look. I always tried to imagine what she'd have looked like if she hadn't been a smoker. A wizard with the tax code, though.
Smoking is great for networking and making new friends at work or school.
I became good friends with my boss because we were part of a small group of smokers banished to the middle of the parking lot at our workplace.
For over eaters it is a great way to lose weight as smoking is a signal to your body to stop eating. Eat a small meal then have a cigarette and if you do this three times a day you won't become a hideous monster.
Other than that smoking is bad and generally makes you look trashy.
"Smoking in the movies is now confined to villains, and affects the rating and content advisory."
How are villains smoking supposed to make it uncool? The villains are often the cool guys in the movies these days, for a variety of reasons. The good guy is usually some foppish nerd; think of Avatar and other big budget flicks. In that one, the hero is a whiny cripple, and the villain is a badass colonel.
"The one nice thing about smoking is that it was something for women to do besides eat. It takes a lot of self discipline to not snack all the time."
That's a good point. Smoking is condemned way more than overeating, yet if you indulge in either vice you'll probably end up dead around the same time regardless.
Smoking makes cool people look cooler, and lame people look lamer.
At this point, I think it's safe to say that some of the "cool" cachet of smoking actually derives from the knowledge that it's harmful and yet the smoker just doesn't give a fuck.
It's also a great networking tool. I'd have to recommend moderation, though.
I've never understood how we have this massive anti smoking crusade in which everybody is in universal agreement, and at the same alcohol is practically shoved down our throats from every angle. You can't watch tv for more than 10 minutes without seeing a commercial for beer. Is there a conspiracy here ? I just have trouble believing the same people who screw us over all the time are actually looking out for us on this one occasion.
When I was in elementary school they really pounded into everybody the "just say no" slogan. So just for fun I decided to experiment and smoked a "coffin nail". The experience sucked. I smoked 2 packs before I went cold turkey. One sick strategy that works all to well is to make kids smoke until they puke their guts out. Then they'll never think "smoking is cool".
I personally don't consider smoking to be "cool". Being a grown up, and having to deal with the real world helps one a great deal in not giving a damn about such petty things.
One thing though: Why is smoking tobacco not considered "cool", while smoking marijuana is considered "cool"?
In both cases one is smoking in something that is not air, damaging one's lungs, and shortening one's life-expectancy.
Personally I don't do either one. I have a small glass of wine every now and then, and that's about it when it comes to addictive chemicals.
If someone wants to remove 10-20 years off of their life by overindulging in a carcinogenic chemical, why should I care?
Smoking is NOT cool anymore, especially among SWPL elite. Completing an Ironman is much cooler than smoking.
Maybe among low-class people smoking is cool, but among the elite, no way.
Why a Darwin Award for smoking? It doesn't hamper reproductive fitness, the negative effects don't usually engage until one is past the gene-passing phase of one's life.
Smoking takes ten years off your life. Well it's the ten worst years, isn't it folks? It's the ones at the end! It's the wheelchair, kidney dialysis, adult diaper fucking years. You can have those years! We don't want 'em, alright? -Denis Leary
All I have to say is Miami Vice. Not the movie but the show. Crocket and his Lucky Strikes were what made that show. Once the network saw fit to can the smoking on air, his character lost something.
You dipwads here say what you say because you're programmed too. But you will never experience true freedom as I have. Sheeple are everywhere, even in the SWPL elite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rcfOuaEmOE
If the SWPL puritans hate it, then it must be cool. I used to think girls smoking was trashy, but after spending four years at a college populated by smokers, it stopped bothering me. Better a smoker than a fat chick.
I don't smoke regularly, but I enjoy having a smoke and the consequent strong nicotine buzz in social settings.
Aaron Baugher -
"I can't help wondering if these people were grown in pods, or maybe shipped in from outer space at 20 years old. Clearly they were never teenagers, or they'd know that there's nothing "cool" about being in the majority."
Anti-smoking campaigns are run by women and manginas. It's like asking your mother or sister how to get girls.
"The one nice thing about smoking is that it was something for women to do besides eat."
You know, statements like this make women seem as dumb, shallow and self-indulgent as the misgynists claim they are.
"It takes a lot of self discipline to not snack all the time."
Not if you keep busy with constructive activiites it doesn't.
In my country we have those ugly images on cigarette packs for a long time. Never kept anyone from smoking. They just make me mad as hell for having to endure ugly morbid images on my daily life because some fucked up bureaucrat thought it would do me any good.
"You know, statements like this make women seem as dumb, shallow and self-indulgent as the misgynists claim they are."
Well?
"You know, statements like this make women seem as dumb, shallow and self-indulgent as the misgynists claim they are."
Well, yall are.
But, now we know that she is prettier, more charming, and better at making sandwiches than you are.
Joe Camel was the mascot for Camel cigarettes. Kool is a brand of menthol cigarettes. Joe Cool Snoopy's alter-ego.
"The one nice thing about smoking is that it was something for women to do besides eat."
You know, statements like this make women seem as dumb, shallow and self-indulgent as the misgynists claim they are."
I don't think Lara's statement implies that at all. Most people are self-indulgent by nature, and in the younger ages especially more women seem to be overweight than men.
Describing reality isn't shallow...For men and women who already don't exercise or eat right, what's the additional harm in smoking? Years are being knocked off of their life regardless.
"But, now we know that she is prettier, more charming, and better at making sandwiches than you are."
Good, then she can wait on you.
You might have to fight her for those sandwiches, though. You better hope you're in her weight class.
"The one nice thing about smoking is that it was something for women to do besides eat."
You know, statements like this make women seem as dumb, shallow and self-indulgent as the misgynists claim they are.
I doubt very much that "Lara" is a woman.
And on a separate subject, can we vote this "Whitey Whiteman" asshole off the island?
I've never understood how we have this massive anti smoking crusade in which everybody is in universal agreement, and at the same alcohol is practically shoved down our throats from every angle.
Shhhh! Don't give them any bright ideas.
It takes a lot of self discipline to not snack all the time.
Not really. All the discipline you need is at the grocery store. Don't bring snacks home and you can't snack. What's that, an hour of discipline a week?
OSD, you're out of your element!
I don't think smoking has been considered cool for many decades now. Being health conscious today is en vogue. Smoking over a long period of time also gives the person a certain prole ruddiness and complexion that is easily identifiable as such. Smoking is a turnoff because who seriously wants to breath in second hand smoke? Running, yoga, agility drills, jump rope, sprinting, and/or martial arts are infinitely cooler than smoking.
1STD,
One wonder if any of the self-righteous anti-smoking fanatics knows the average age at which a smoker gets lung cancer in the rare event that the smoker gets lung cancer.
Does any of them know that the nation with the highest level of cigarette smoking has a life expectancy far longer than the wimps in the USA?
Robert in Arabia
"The Big Lebowski?"
Bro, U Mad?
I don't know. Since the most common smokers in real life in the US tend to be groups of middle aged overweight women huddled outside office buildings, I think smoking has already reached the tipping point of becoming very uncool. Or about as cool as stuffing your face with a bag of Fritos. Like IHTG points out - men want to look athletic, and smoking a cigarette makes a man look effeminate, not cool in most circles.
where is OneSTD? They got him. Dammit!
You people hurt his feelings, so he's giving up. Fuck you shitbastards for being such dicks to him!
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This is getting a bit worrying. If anybody has 1stdv's email, see if he's alive and well.
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