[Sonny M]

Part me can't help laugh, since I've noticed, when I am at a bar, when some anti-smoking as comes on, in a almost pavlov type actions, alot of us, light up.

[Red Badger]

....they actually encourage the rebellious nature of youth.

WELL, DUH!......These ads are being created and run by the "HIPPY" Generation! You'd think they know that!.......

[eyedigress]

Teens are being rebellious to the “machine”? Say it ain’t so!

[MuttTheHoople]

I'm convinced the "anti-smoking" movement is designed to get more people to smoke. Hitler was the first anti-smoking Nazi...literally. He had the power of propaganda and autocratic rule, and we know how he didn't like people going against him.

That said, statistics show that the rate of smoking in Germany INCREASED prior to World War II more than in France (where we know their whole society is about smoking). Smoking in Germany decreased as the war went on only because of the privations of war.

I think our government knows this, and is trying to increase smoking so there'll be more money into government coffers, plus with the early smoking deaths, billions of dollars will be saved on Social Security and Medicare.

[3AngelaD]

Well, duh, again. Anyone who has ever had teenagers knows that in certain circumstances, and this is one, they can be hell bent to do exactly what you tell them not to do.

[oakcon]

So - let’s stop wasting our tax dollars on them.

[Tax-chick]

LOL! I believe it. One of my sons says he wants to try smoking, because he hears all the time about how terrible it is, and he doesn’t believe it.

[xenophiles]

"Rather than saying, 'don't smoke,' it is better to say, "your friends are listening to this message and not smoking," she said. "It doesn't really matter what their peers are actually doing."

Teenagers are often foolish, but they are not this gullible and they are always wary of being lied to by adults. Advertisers have tried this ham-handed false peer pressure before in online communities and been badly burned.

[Domandred]

I’d like to see pro-non-smoking ads instead of anti-smoking. That make sense? Instead of hammering on don’t smoke, glorify general fitness. You wouldn’t even have to mention smoking in some of the ads.

[AirForceBrat23]

I cannot stand those ads from some group called “the truth”, where it’s some obnoxious kid with a megaphone shouting at “Big Tobacco” in some defiant “stick-it-to-the-man” voice while other kids around him engaged in some kind of faux performance art demonstration.

Rather than getting mad at Big Tobacco, I want to go have a smoke just to pi$$ off that annoying little jerk.

[Gabz]

The more exposure middle school students have to anti-smoking ads, the more likely they are to smoke, according to a new University of Georgia study.

Ya think????? DUH.

[Larry Lucido]

Study: Anti-smoking ads have opposite effect on teens

In other news, RJ Reynolds has announced that it will spend an extra one billion dollars on anti-smoking ads this year.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

This is what happens when you try to mold external behavior while refusing to promote the inner character and moral foundation that would produce the desired behavior naturally.

IOW, let's not be surprised when people behave according to their nature.

[Tall_Texan]

So, I guess the anti-drug, anti-fast food and anti-pollution ads are having the same negative effect?

[Marie]

I hate them most when I'm trying to quit. I can be sitting comfortably, completely relaxed and not thinking about cigarettes at all, watching Scrubs (or whatever), then here comes a commercial that reminds me of exactly the thing I'm trying NOT to think of.

And you're right, I've noticed that every smoker I know lights up when an anti-smoking commercial comes on.

[Wolfie]

That’s no reason to stop them. Just ask the ONDCP.

[Old Professer]

Blaming old PM again, eh; the Cryptoquote a few days ago was “The cleverness of avarice is but the cunning of imbecility.”
Edward Bulwar Lytton

[DakotaRed]

They need studies to figure out that kids usually do the opposite of what their parents and elders say?

Keep pushing the anti-smoking propaganda, they are creating smokers by the dozens.