Posted by
Just a guy on Sunday, August 13, 2006 2:41:59 AM
I'm not a big fan of television, which I guess is why I am the only one perturbed about the new anti-tobacco commercials. At what point does it become okay to distort the truth in order to get a "good" point across. The commercial that stuck out most to me (after visiting the website http://www.whudafxup.com/) was the claim that new flavored cigarettes are directed towards kids.
In this commercial they set out to prove that these flavored cigarettes are designed specifically with hooking kids on nicotine. In the commercial they try three major things to engrave this idea in your mind. Sufficing to say, none of them are very convincing.
The first thing that is brought up is the name of the cigarettes. The point they are trying to convey here is that said products have names that grab attention, specifically that of minors. First let me say that I am not a marketing executive, nor would I be good at it, however I find it only logical that if you are making a flavored tobacco (which I know has been suggested by some of my ADULT coworkers) you would give it a name that signified it as something new and cool in the tobacco world.
They then take it a step further by setting up a stand to show how it attracts kids. I have one large problem with this part, it is under ridiculous circumstances. They setup up a pseudo lemonade stand, paint it pink, then design the names of the cigarette flavors to further attract kids. In other words, they turn it into a lemonade stand and then put a small basket of cigarettes on a counter that you would have to walk up to see. NOWHERE BUT ON THE PACKS is tobacco mentioned on the stand. They then top this off by putting the stand in the middle of a park. They then use this to prove that kids were more attracted to the cigarettes than adults because more kids came up to the stand. All it really proved was that kids were more attracted to a lemonade stand than adults when placed in the middle of a park. Probably better used as a case study for any six year that needs to earn some money for his new bike by selling some ice cold lemonade.
The hack in these commercials then throws us an amazing curve ball, one that obviously proves his point. He states that in 1972 (34 years ago) an internal tobacco document stated that "it is a well known fact that teenagers enjoy sweet products". I would like to officially make a statement: It is a well know fact that EVERYONE likes sweet products. There you go guys, and that statement was made by one of the former kids in the generation you're "protecting". So please, get a real point, then fight the tobacco company. Don't go about it like this, because at this point I have about as much respect for you as I do for your sworn enemy Big Tobacco