I was reminded today by one of my three readers that I forgot to write yesterday. It’s not that I forgot, I was just busy. Life has been kind of crazy lately, so let’s get right down to business.
Check out this website: http://www.whudafxup.com/
You’ve probably seen their ads on TV, they are all about how big tobacco is evil. They find neat and clever ways to show us “the truth” about tobacco. For example, it’s bad for you. These people are especially upset over the fact that big tobacco is allowed to continue selling their cancer causing products.
A couple of thoughts:
First of all, pointing out the fact that cigarettes are dangerous is kind of like pointing out that fire burns things. It’s fairly obvious, I mean, we don’t exactly need an entire advertising campaign designed to teach people “the truth” about how your stuff will be destroyed if engulfed by fire. Frankly, if someone doesn’t know that cigarette smoking is bad for them (and forget science, how about the fact that it turns everything yellow, makes you sound like Darth Vader, and leaves you unable to run more than 10 feet at a time? Shouldn’t that tell you something right there?) they deserve to face the consequences of their actions. Forget the fire analogy, how about this one:
THE TRUTH: Hostess makes millions of Twinkies every year . . . Twinkies that, when consumed, MAKE YOU FAT.
Do we need this ad campaign? Are Americans this stupid, really? Are there people sitting at home going, “Are you serious? I had NO IDEA those things were making me fat!”
Frankly, people who don’t know smoking gives you cancer, or that Twinkies make you fat, deserve to have cancer and be fat.
There is so much crap going on in the world—wars, famine, insane dictators destroying their own people, etc. With all that in mind, how do you wake up one day and decide that the problem that really needs to be fixed is big tobacco? Maybe these people have relatives who died after smoking for years. But ultimately those people still CHOSE to smoke.
Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised. As a species we haven’t be able to move beyond war, find cures for cancer, solve poverty and starvation problems, provide health care for the poor, etc. We HAVE, however, walked on the moon (for no apparently reason, other than to do it before the Russians), invented breast implants, nose jobs and liposuction, and of course we decided it was important for a 90-year-old man to be able to have a 4 hour long erection, so we invented Viagra. These are the things we’ve decided to put our minds to.
Anyways . . .
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2 comments:
The last video clip was too painful to watch - I couldn't even finish it!
I have a student who started smoking when he was 9. I don't know how much he knew about the ills of tobacco.
I also have an issue with the state sponsored gambling industries. Why does the state of Oregon sponser Gambling and then have to take part of the proceeds to fight gambling addictions? It reminds me of when I was starting to see the real ill effects of kids drinking too much pop and eating too much candy. When I talked to people about it, I was informed that they couldn't quit because it was bringing so much revenue into the school. The bottom line is that in America, money rules.
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