Anyone Noticed Those Truth Campaigns?

[MechAnt]

You know Truth? That organization that shows the bad side of ciggies? I've noticed something as of late with them.

They no longer really care as much as they used to about preventing and stopping youths from smoking but as of late, they are more anti-Big Tobacco. I don't like that. I used to smoke A LOT when I was 14-16 and discovering the Truth website and stuff really convinced me to quit. But now, they are just attacking Big Tobacco instead of stopping youth smoking. I don't like that When Truth helped me so much, they are starting to fail at what they do. I worry for younger generations...

Thoughts?

Here's their website, www.whudafxup.com Read their Facts section.

[SafeSearchOff]

i've noticed that change too. they used to be all like
"look how many people cigs killed today"
or
"listen to how this dude talks, thanks to cigs"

now they're just like
"BIG TOBACCO! ye be targeting chillen with your ad campaigns! thou shalt perish! bring down the man!"

[Dunkel!]

Yes, I've noticed them. That dork with bed head and the Buddy Holly glasses is an eyesore. I wish they'd get rid of that friggin' tool!

[SafeSearchOff]

i especially loathe the 2 commercials with him in the muppet suit, and the exotic flavors one. he's like "it appeals to kids! grown ups don't like it!"

first of all, its called marketing. we are all of age, and many of you over 20. and what flavors do you smoke? "Passion kiss" "Cool Rasberry" "Wildberry Mint" "Double Apple" "Pumpkin Pie" "Fruit Cocktail" etc. maybe its true, it appeals to kids. but it also appeals to a damn good load of grownups, and its better than naming it "fruit-like flavor" "mundane rasberry" "berries from the field with some mint" etc.

also, with the muppet suit, again, marketing. fuck man, why back in the day did nick and cartoon network always play the "get your GED now!" commercials on a kids network? parents watching with their kids, and I'm assuming its the same for their movies. as far as I know, most kids under 11 to 12 years of age are accompanied by parents to the movies. some of said parents smoke cigs. ooh look! product placement.

[MechAnt]

I agree with everything you guys said. Big Tobacco isn't the only target here. We need to target the kids too. To prevent them from smoking early on.

I guess we're no better than big tobacco in that manner

Prevention is the best cure. Edited August 16, 2007 by MechAnt

[Sonthert]

Yeah, because telling people not to do something works sooo well. Kids don't use drugs, once they go through DARE. None of us smoke...and we were all told not to. We're all told not to drink and drive but DUIs continue to increase (although the legal limits keep going down).

Drug use in the US is per capita, higher now than it ever has before. The number of cocaine users and marijuana users are higher now than they were before they were made illegal.

[/legalization plug]

Education is one thing, but jumping up and down on someone's head is an altogether different case...it may have the opposite effect.

For whatever it's worth, thats why I've never liked, for the most part, resorting to soda-pop/candy sounding names for my flavors, so as people can't accuse me of targeting kids. There's a lot more impact, I think, to a vanilla vs. vanilla ice cream or banana split. What needs to occur is we have to start holding companies accountable for their obvious misdeeds. In one way, I liked the judgments against the big tobacco companies...they held corporate irresponsibility up to high-powered magnification. Big tobacco just had to futz around with ammonia cycle chemistry. They couldn't just roll tobacco in paper. On the other hand "Wah, I'm addicted to cigarettes. I want money!" Reminds me of "I Love Lucy" storylines. People want to be fully informed, people don't want to be fully informed. ping pong balls. Its the responsibility of a person to put things into their body. If they choose to put something in there other than food, water or the occasional FDA approved pharmaceutical, its their own fault. The government as Mother Hen. Food, water and pharmaceutical purity should be closely regulated. Monitoring of other things as well, including tobacco and consumer goods off the top of my head, but don't lay blame off on someone else. I understand addiction's a bitch, but you choose to continue to put cigarettes in your mouth...your fault. Your fat, stop eating so much, exercise more. Your nervous and cranky? Stop drinking so much caffeine. Your spelling is sloppy, read a dictionary. Figuratively, too many people buy a dictionary, with the intention of reading it, but leave it collecting dust on a shelf. Take responsibility for your weaknesses and stop trying to lay them off on someone else. Every person who sued bug tobacco should have been separated into two categories...people who stopped smoking but still got sick when they found out the risks of cigarettes and people who kept right on smoking...the latter group should receive substantially less...bordering on nothing. Why should the first group get something? Because a company chose to engineer a product for their own benefits, despite the obvious risks of adulterating the product. They found out and did nothing to stop it...they are as guilty as sin. The unfortunate truth is, the people who found out about cigarettes and quit and still got sick are all dead now. Thats the sad part.

[nestormakhno]

I would actually argue that DARE has the opposite effect. They sit you in a room with a bunch of people and tell you that there is a thing that can help you escape reality, make you feel good, give you lots of nice friends, BUT DON'T DO IT!

A couple of years ago, I was handed a Mormon Guidebook to Being a Teenager or some such garbage on my way to class. For shits and giggles, I flipped through it, and there was a great passage on masturbation. They said something along the lines of, look, we know it feels good, and that it relieves stress, and it's kind of beneficial for young, hormonal you, BUT DON'T DO IT!

They suggested making a sandwich. Truth is useless. DARE is useless. Kids have smoked, are smoking, and will smoke regardless. Before they're 18, it's on the parents to make them know better. After that, they're on their own.

[SafeSearchOff]

i personally believe the best way to make kids not even pick up smoking is to not just tell them of the effects later on, but to show it.
my brother is huge smoker, a pack to a pack and a half a day, two if he's at a party. know why I never picked up smoking? because as a junior in high school my brother had smoker's cough, he walks around my house and i pretty much have GPS tracking on him because every now and then i hear him hack out a few. he also actually quit playing lacrosse because smoking affected him so much he couldn't run the 20 yards required of him.

as for dare - really don't know how thats going to work. in my dare class, they'd show us cartoon videos of kids smoking pot, or tripping on a bunch of pills, or waht shit looks like when your on mushrooms. and i think the general concensus of my class, was "sweet!". Why the fuck do you show kids what it looks like to you when your on drugs? if you want kids to not show drugs, show a guy taking two pills of ecstacy. then show that person dead an hour later. show a kid popping pills, and then show that kid getting his stomache pumped in a hospital. want kids not to drink? show a guy shotgunning a beer with his friends cheering him on. then show that guy with his face in the toilet, puking his brains out, or lying on the floor covered in puke.

the one useful thing i learned in DARE that i still do to this day is what my officer suggested if we ever go out drinking - if your friend passes out, turn their head to the side, so if they throw up, they dont drown in it. it actually happened once, it was a pretty good idea...

[Scoop]

dare was part of the phony war on drugs.

biggest waste of us money besides the recent wars...

all propagandist bullshit

[ghostofdavid]

My anti-drug solution for kids? Make them watch the movie Requiem for a Dream. That should stop a lot of common sense people from using them. However, a lot of the time it is the very thing that I described that some people will never get/earn/learn.

[SafeSearchOff]

My solution to GoD's anti-drug solution - show them Blow. sure as hell makes me want to be a coke dealer >.<

thats a good idea though, follows with the "look what happens when you fuck it up" theme. also a good movie for it is easy rider.

[MechAnt]

Requiem for a Dream... that is one fucked up movie. That movie completely diverted me from drugs. Period. Talk about an effective anti-drug.

[shisha fan]

My anti-drug solution for kids? Make them watch the movie Requiem for a Dream. That should stop a lot of common sense people from using them. However, a lot of the time it is the very thing that I described that some people will never get/earn/learn.

requiem for a dream is a great movie, but it is fiction and very sensationalised (for people`s entertainment).
the war on drugs is a bottomless pitt that governments like to throw money in, to make it look like they
are doing something. i think you can never control what kids are doing all the time, so give them facts instead
of trying to scare them with phony stories. and don`t forget that alcohol is a drug too.

[SafeSearchOff]

the facts would probably just encourage them more
"kids - marijuana is a drug that makes you think everything is funny. sometimes you'll laugh uncontrolably for a few minutes just because someone said any random word. It also makes you really hungry, but don't worry, if you eat when your high, it just tastes all the better.
mushrooms are a drug a step up from marijuana. its slightly hallucogenic! imagine me, talking to you right now, and all of a sudden my face starts morphin. look, i'm growing hornds and my nose is starting to grow! the whole hallway seems to be wobbling.

uhh DONT DO DRUGS - there might be some negative sideaffects later."

just to clear it up, i'm not pro-drugs, i'm just drilling holes in shisha fan's solution.
shit man, requiem made me straight up decide "fuck, I'm never doing that". phony story or not, it works, and it works well. harder drugs than pot and shrooms will be easier to explain (using your solution) because of the abundance of large sideaffects, but still:
"acid is a drug that makes you trip face! the world becomes filled with colors, and everything is morphing into some fucked up shit! don't do it though, because when your older, if you crack your back, you might trip again. oh, and if you do it over 9 times, your legally considered mentally insane!"

[nestormakhno]

Speaking of truth, y'all heard of New York City's attempt to ban parental smoking with minors in the car? It was on either Reuters or AP the other day... Along with that, they're trying to outlaw the words "bitch" and "ho," following the successful legislation against the n-word...

[ghostofdavid]

Successful legislation of the n word? Does this apply to black people, too? No rap cds in the city of New York.

Edit: I meant city, not state. Edited August 17, 2007 by ghostofdavid

[nestormakhno]

Successful legislation of the n word? Does this apply to black people, too? No rap cds in the city of New York.

Edit: I meant city, not state.

That was basically their target audience. A guy from Brooklyn didn't like the prevalence of the word among youth and rap music, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. Yeah, policing speech... that's some commendable vigilante justice right there...

[kornkitten42]

Well I'd like to say a few things against these stupid truth ads.

1. first off...why would you make a website with "what the fucks up"........ GREAT thing to get into a CHILDS head...
not saying they aren't all ready using the language but my 10yr old cousin asked me the other day what it mean in their URL.... not FUN to explain....

2. In regard to the flavors one. HE HAD A DAMN ICE CREAM STAND SET UP. Of course little kids are going to be attracked to an outrageously colored, flavored, CANDY/ ICE CREAM stand. That right their INVALIDATES any point they were trying to make....... wth.

3. He was in a purple muppet like costume.... NOT an actual MUPPET costume. Had Oscar, or Elmo been out there MANY grown ups would have posed for pictures thinking it was a propaganda thing for a new movie. Not some random lame ass purple people eater costume that probably came from one of those nasty animal sex shops (refering to fetishes with full out mascot costume sex....YUCK) AHAH. funny non the less.

4. When you are chasing people around THEY WILL RUN from you no matter if you are in normal attire, or animal attire.

5. There marketing has definitly digressed. (sp) They have gone from the incredibly in your face tactics to stupid ones because they realized that putting that crap on tv doesn't matter. People have been getting that crap crammed into their heads since the early 90s they are now desensitized to it and dont care. I dont. I just get pissed when they come on now. Then I mock them.

6. In middle school they have sex ed. I'm sorry they pass out condoms, ask Q' AND A'S and then expect children NOT TO HAVE SEX? When they were just told how, when and where to have it? NICE.....

7. DARE does not work either. It may work when they are 10 but nobody cares about buddy the lion or who ever he is when they are 13. That was along time ago and signing that stupid contract saying I pledge not to do drugs..... is stupid. I refused to sign mine and got in trouble. My parents always told me to think about my actions. even in 5th grade I did not know what I was going to do when I was 20 or in college. (I had older brothers and sisters and knew more than the average 5th graders about drug use) and did not want to say i was never going to try it. My parents were then called and my parents said if i didn't want to sign it , i didnt have to. It was my choice, BUT KNEW i wasn't going to try drugs at least any time soon........ long story short... I signed it anyway because i was singled out in class......... (and that scenario only happened once and never again... because i thought it was stupid....) but not due to some stupid contract........


I also think screening words is a violation of free speech. IF YOU DONT WANT TO HEAR IT, TURN IT OFF. Get a life, get a clue, quit your bitching and move on. Nobody cares if you are all butt hurt over something. GET OVER YOURSELF.


/rant

[MechAnt]

Woot for KornKitten!!!!!

[Alademuerte]

Yeah, I've noticed their commercials have gotten pretty stupid lately... Do you have Light Bullets?? Kinda dumb..

But I think KornKitten hit it right on the button, lol.

[MERCHANT]

drugs ha what a funny subject im more than willing to bet that some of the people in this thread have tried them once because why peer pressure? it just takes one guy to go oh hey wanna smoke some grass and the kids like nahh dude but then hes like oh come on its so much fun and then bam another statistic to the group of people who have tried drugs. I went through dare i hated every minute of it. it was mindless stupid and half the people they brought in were not even former drug addicts. My parents made a deal with me when i was in high school that if i did not do any drug drink or smoke while in highschool i would recieve 1,000 cash and you know what i didnt and now look at me im 20 years old dont smoke dont drink dont do drugs but i smoke hookah because its a nice relaxing thing to do. thats my .02 cents

[shisha fan]

drugs ha what a funny subject im more than willing to bet that some of the people in this thread have tried them once because why peer pressure? it just takes one guy to go oh hey wanna smoke some grass and the kids like nahh dude but then hes like oh come on its so much fun and then bam another statistic to the group of people who have tried drugs. I went through dare i hated every minute of it. it was mindless stupid and half the people they brought in were not even former drug addicts. My parents made a deal with me when i was in high school that if i did not do any drug drink or smoke while in highschool i would recieve 1,000 cash and you know what i didnt and now look at me im 20 years old dont smoke dont drink dont do drugs but i smoke hookah because its a nice relaxing thing to do. thats my .02 cents

did you never want to find out what nice cold beer tastes like?

[joseph*]

Dude, you say you "don't smoke," then say "But I smoke hookah" Smoking hookah is Smoking. It is harmful, and has a very potent drug called nicotine in it, which is equally adictive whether ingested from a cigarette or a hookah. Its the nicotine that makes the hookah relaxing. So, lets be clear, you are a 20 year old smoker, who uses a drug (in this case nicotine).

[BallentineChen]

I don't know if you guys know this or if it has already been mentioned, but the Truth campaigns are funded by Phillip-Morris (Old Cigarette Company, before Altria came about).

[MechAnt]

Makes sense then. They realized how powerful the truth campaign was so they are targeting big tobacco instead of smoking prevention.