Subject: Children in anti-smoking TV ads
Posted by: lesley153
Date: Oct 05 09
The ads start, and you're expecting junk food and double glazing, but a cute eight-year-old pops up and starts talking to camera.
"Hallo mum and dad... I know you're watching this television programme, but I want to give you a short message.
"When you smoke, it makes me sad because I don't want you to die. Please will you stop smoking. Please stop - just for me."
Is this going to have any effect at all on parents who smoke? And is it an appropriate use of children?
Posted by: lesley153
Date: Oct 05 09
The ads start, and you're expecting junk food and double glazing, but a cute eight-year-old pops up and starts talking to camera.
"Hallo mum and dad... I know you're watching this television programme, but I want to give you a short message.
"When you smoke, it makes me sad because I don't want you to die. Please will you stop smoking. Please stop - just for me."
Is this going to have any effect at all on parents who smoke? And is it an appropriate use of children?
15 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
Deunan 
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I think it is inappropriate to utilize children in this manner. Children will not make people stop smoking. Reply #1. Oct 05 09, 4:14 PM |
mathking97
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I agree, I tried when I was 8, my grandma died and I said, "I tried to tell you." No matter what you do, they'll keep buying 12 packs per week. Unless you make the cigarette unappealing, but that may not work. Reply #2. Oct 05 09, 4:23 PM |
Heleena
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I agree that this ad will not prevent people from smoking. The only thing that I think will discourage people from smoking will be the increasing price of cigarettes. Taxes on tobacco products went up here in the U.S. a few months ago and I think some smokers are quitting due to higher costs. It will be interesting to see if number of smokers declines here over the next couple of years. Reply #3. Oct 05 09, 6:45 PM |
wayman71
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The increasing price of cigarettes does not discourage me from smoking, it encourages me to smoke cheaper cigarettes. A child I don't know from Adam is not going to guilt me into quitting when my own kids couldn't do it. I don't think children should be used in anti-smoking ads. Showing the results of smoking, i.e. a man hooked up to an oxygen tank, would probably be more effective. Reply #4. Oct 05 09, 7:12 PM |
veronikkamarrz
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Actually, children should not be associated with cigarettes in ANY way, including TV ads pleading for 'parents' to stop smoking. Kids who have a mum or dad that smoke, have probably already tried this in the home...and are still trying. It doesn't need to be broadcast. Reply #5. Oct 05 09, 8:29 PM |
Kdog2993
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parents, teenagers etc choose to smoke. I think guilt-tripping someone (even if its by way of kids) is never going to work. A person has to WANT to quit on their own, even their children cant help them. Its an addiction just like alcohol, cocaine etc I think that would be an exploitation of children to a certain degree. I dont believe using a child for that purpose is right. Children just hear that cigarettes kill. They are still just children. And in schools, i know first hand they scare them so much they fear for their mother and father or whoever smoke in their live, they fear for their lives. Im not saying to shelter children but its not right to tell kids so blatently about something they dont fully understand yet., Reply #6. Nov 02 09, 8:33 AM |
lesley153
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VM, it's been tried on the TV too. You see a small child "smoking" a toothbrush handle, and then you see a parent flapping about with a real cigarette, and hear a warning that children copy adults. Thanks for telling us that. KellyAnne, they do that here too. Very young children are taught to believe that you can drop dead as you light up, as if you were playing Russian roulette. I have no idea whose idea it was to frighten the life out of our children like this, and what exactly they hope that the fear will achieve, but come the revolution they're the first people I want to see lined up against the wall. I cannot begin to imagine the long-term psychological damage this is doing. Reply #7. Nov 04 09, 11:55 AM |
Professer
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Sadly these ads will not work, as people who smoke do so because they want to, nothing will stop them. Perfect example a friend and his wife both smoked my friend had a Heart attack which he has survived and he stopped smoking was a 60 a day man, his wife still smokes. So any stop smoking ads will not make people stop Reply #8. Nov 04 09, 12:06 PM |
jonnowales
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For most cases only death will make people stop smoking. A bit cheap to use a child in this advert - I assume that this is a government advert? They don't care whether people stop or not anyway, it's all cash to them. Reply #9. Nov 04 09, 12:17 PM |
REDVIKING57
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Increasing taxes on cigarettes or alcohol does not work. And governments don't do it to 'encourage' people to stop. It's just another revenue stream for them. As a matter of interest,how much is a pack of 20 in the US? Over here,they're between £4.50 - £5.85 (about $7 - $9) Reply #10. Nov 04 09, 12:17 PM |
| wayman71
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It probably differs state to state, but here in Ohio a pack of name brand cigs is around $5.oo. Reply #11. Nov 04 09, 12:42 PM |
Anton
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"And in schools, i know first hand they scare them so much they fear for their mother and father or whoever smoke in their live, they fear for their lives." LOL Where did you go to school? When I was in school, nobody cared. Teacher catches us smoking in the bleachers? No problem. Just put it out and go, the teacher says. Cops? They were hit or miss. Sometimes they gave a ticket, and sometimes they didn't. My baseball coaches were the best though. Their view on this was, as long as it's not during the game, it's all good. I even ditched school and got drunk at their house a couple times. There was a time when nobody cared. Now, everybody's feelings are getting hurt daily. There is nothing wrong with this ad. It is just a commercial. It's not like the kid in said ad was chain smoking, right? Reply #12. Nov 04 09, 12:43 PM |
| honeybee4
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My brother began smoking in his early teens and didn't quit until he was no longer able to the last week of his life. He had emphesema and was on oxygen the last two years of his life. He married very young and his wife also smoked. She is in the last few weeks of her life and is suffering from lung cancer that has spread throughout her body. I would wish that anyone would think very hard about smoking that first cigarette. Reply #13. Nov 04 09, 1:06 PM |
s-m-w
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Will this or any ad help smokers over their addiction? Personally and sadly I don’t think so, which makes one wonder how a parent could listen to the words of a child begging them not to risk their life and take no notice whatsoever. How could a child understand that mommy or daddy would rather burn a tobacco/chemical mix wrapped in paper and inhale the toxic smoke than live and love them? So no, I too feel that “it is inappropriate to utilize children in this manner” but for very different reasons. Reply #14. Nov 04 09, 1:07 PM |
Cymruambyth
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I'm a smoker. I started when I was 21 and I was 72 on my last birthday. I do not suffer from respiratory problems of any kind - in fact, I seldom even get colds! Nothing will get a smoker to quit until the smoker chooses to quit. Not advertising, not health scares, not increased prices for cigarettes (here in my part of Canada they're over $10.00 a pack or about $78.00 for a carton of eight packs - that's including tax. When I started smoking cigarettes were 35 cents a pack!) I object to using children in advertising for any product or cause. I was an advertising copywriter/copy director/creative director for over 30 years and resisted all efforts to use kids in advertising - except for one campaign when I gathered a groups of kids - my own included - sat them around a table and let them talk about what they liked best about Christmas. The ads featuring children pleading with adults to quit smoking are little more than a form of child abuse! Reply #15. Nov 05 09, 9:10 PM |
15 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
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