Do the constant anti-smoking messages in the media, etc. create an alluring mystique about cigarettes?

Question

Does keeping kids away from smoking, and telling them they're bad and such just make them want to experiment?

Answer 1

if the question was as simple as 'yes' or 'no', then it would of already been done

Answer 2

No, I don't think they do.

Smoking is a very common addiction for many people, so children and adolescents have a lot of exposure to them. Often, children can have a very pleasant association with people that smoke, and that association can be transferred to smoking itself.

The myth that "telling someone something is bad just makes them want to do it" is amusing in a way, but not true. The only people that wish to do something simply because it's anathema in culture are naturally rebellious types anyway that want to manufacture an image. Smoking is already part of that image, and it's extremely addictive to boot.

Answer 3

No... I believe these messages have their place in trying to effect a change.  My mom told me that when she was young they didn't know about how harmful cigarettes were.  When I was young I remember Parents sending their kids down to the local convenience store to buy them a pack.  It wasn't illegal back then to sell them to a minor.

Answer 4

I just don't think they are as effective as the Brooke Shields Calvin Klein Jeans ad in the early 1980's. She was the coolest teenager, and we all wanted to be like her. She did a jeans ad that had cigarettes sticking out of her ears and nose and said "Smoking ISN'T Beautiful". That one worked. I do not know a single person our age that has ever smoked cigarettes. I am 42.

The ones out there now are actually quite often paid for by the tobacco companies themselves as a "public service". Ha, Ha. They are almost like reverse psychology, and make it look like the cool kids smoke, so you shouldn't. Instead, they should show the lungs of a smoker. The coughing and death statistics, and how its more addictive than heroin, and how it makes you stink, look like an idiot, and repulse a good share of the planet.

Show a beautiful girl look at a boy and think hes cool until he lights up, then have her make a grossed out face and ignore him, and THAT would be effective.

Say something like "Kissing a smoker is like l*****g an ashtray." That doesn't make you want to smoke at all, does it?

I have watched many, many relatives die smoking related deaths. They started smoking in the 40's and 50's when it was really glamorous in the movies. They started dying of cancer within 20 years of starting, and the "lucky ones" who reached their 60's, all have emphesema, coughs that make them throw up and mess their pants, and many have frequent hospitalizations for pneumonia. That kinda takes the cool out of the idea, doesn't it?

(I have had 14 relatives die of lung cancer. They all smoked. My Mom and my Father In Law are both physically wrecked from smoking, and although they both quit in their 60's, the damage done to their bodies is permanent. Bladder cancer is usually caused by smoking too.

If you think thats cool, light one up. Want to live a long, fun, healthy life and be really attractive to the opposite s*x, get better jobs, have cheaper life insurance rates and healthier kids? Never light up.

Answer 5

I'm not sure, but when those anti smoking ads come on the TV it makes me want to have another when I'm trying to quit