Self-rightous ads...

[Haliwali]

Truth Ads. I hate them as much as any man can hate any commercial. For those of you fortunate enough to live in an area where these are not aired (where do you live, I will pay rent) these are the standard anti-smoking ads. At first, they were simple, "Just say no" and "It's not healthy." They've now become such pretentious snotlings that they think the best way to get their message across is through a little song and dance about underweight babies. They seem to live for the chance to bash big tobacco every chance they get. They also portray tobacco companies as being out not to make money like any other business, but a group of people bent on nothing else than the complete and utter destruction of the worlds lungs.

And now an intermission while I explain where I'm coming from. My Grandparents, Uncle, Aunt, and several friends smoke/smoked. I don't. I tried it, didn't like it, didn't feel like I was getting anything out of it. My grandmother died a year before I was born because of lung cancer. My uncle died when I was about 10, heart attack. Both were a result of smoking. Do I blame them? Well, harsh as it sounds, yes. They knew that smoking caused a health risk, I mean it's right there on the label. Do I blame tobacco companies, no, not really. It's not like they shoved the cigarettes into their mouths and forced them.

These pricks at Truth seem to be under the impression that we are all smoking our lives away, blindfolded by the evil shenanigans of Marlboro and Winston, waiting to be liberated by the benevolent wisdom of their righteous glory. I want to know when it became popular to remove individual fault and blaming the corporation whose product you enjoyed so much became the trend. It's not just tobacco either, there's the people suing McDonald's because they're fat and crap like that making me think I'm the last person with any sense of responsibility left.

 

[sammyfreak]

Tobacco companies do have a history of rather agresive marketing ciggarets to kids you know.

 

[Haliwali]

I work in a store that sells tobacco. We don't sell to minors. The only way a kid could get something is through an adult, who would be knowingly breaking the law. Also, throughout my childhood I have rarely seen a tobacco product or ad aimed, marketed, or suggested in any place a kid would see it.

 

[HuCast]

Its not just the people-its the media, the politics and the whole society. Nobody is responsible for anything anymore, its always "the others" fault. Who benefits from this? Insure companies, lawyers and corrupt politicians.

 

[panthrjd]

I think it all comes down to the lawsuits -- it all started going downhill (to my memory) when that woman sued McDonalds for spilling coffee on herself "because it was hot" and didn't say so, that essentially due to asinine lawsuits, we have to be treated like children now. But more generally, you can thank good ol' Political Correctness for the public's inability to take any responsibility for their own actions anymore.

 

[Vortigar]

HuCast:
Mostly the latter. America (and I wager other countries too, but America's political system makes it very obvious) has a very wealthy and influential tabbacco lobby going. Much like the gun lobby. Loads of large businesses tossing money and expense trips around, connecting people and thereby creating career short-cuts and the like, it's a very tempting trap indeed. All you need to do is vote against and for on a couple of bills per year.

 

[Wesker_Chick]

I used to smoke, I quit about a year ago. Now, do I blame the tobacco companies for making me smoke? No, I choose to smoke, they didn't came banging on my door, put a gun to my head, and force a cigarette into my mouth.

And, I'm sorry, but those commercials are a load of hoarse crap. Yes, we all know smoking is bad...it's right there on the damn pack, however if I still choose to smoke, leave me the hell alone. I don't need you and your crap dancing around my TV while I'm trying to watch South Park telling me how I'm slowly killing myself. The last time I checked suicide wasn't illegal...

Lastly, stupid people need to stop suing other peopled for illness caused by their stupidity...nuff said.

 

[DeadpanLunatic]

I have removed my words from this site.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

While I am in favor of Non-Smoking in Public places (it's YOUR choice to smoke, not mine, you have no right to make my decision for me) I figure people should be allowed to kill themselves should they so desire.

Recently here in Calgary, they've just banned the display of tobacco products, which makes me feel bad for classy humidor joints that sell cigars and pipes and stuff. I mean, telling people "YOU CANNOT SMOKE" seems a little overkill and a litte facist.

 

[Alex_P]

I think it all comes down to the lawsuits -- it all started going downhill (to my memory) when that woman sued McDonalds for spilling coffee on herself "because it was hot" and didn't say so, that essentially due to asinine lawsuits, we have to be treated like children now. But more generally, you can thank good ol' Political Correctness for the public's inability to take any responsibility for their own actions anymore.

You do know that that coffee was, like, 30 degrees hotter than the coffee you'd typically get at a diner, right? (McDonald's did this -- not sure if they still do -- because they wanted the coffee to stay hot longer.) The old woman sued them because she sustained serious burns to 10 or 20 percent of her body and needed major hospital care -- not something that should happen if you just spill a bit of your beverage on yourself; now, her choice of clothing (sweat pants) didn't help, because it soaked it up and trapped it against her skin.

The whole goddamn point of the lawsuit wasn't "Are you liable for me spilling coffee on myself?" but "Was your coffee unreasonably hot for a carry-out beverage in the first place?"

-- Alex

 

[bunkymag]

The last time I checked suicide wasn't illegal...

Not trying to poke fun here or anything, but suicide is actually illegal in many many places throughout the world.. perhaps the majority. It is an interesting legal / philosophical point.

 

[Haliwali]

The last time I checked suicide wasn't illegal...

Not trying to poke fun here or anything, but suicide is actually illegal in many many places throughout the world.. perhaps the majority. It is an interesting legal / philosophical point.

Probably the easiest crime to get away with though...

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

The last time I checked suicide wasn't illegal...

Not trying to poke fun here or anything, but suicide is actually illegal in many many places throughout the world.. perhaps the majority. It is an interesting legal / philosophical point.

"If you commit suicide, you will be executed."

 

[Exterminatus]

A little on topic, a little off.

I was smoking a fag down at my local bus stop the other day, something I do regularly whilst waiting for the 222, when a mother and her whelp came and sat down next to me. Being the kind man that I am, I decided to finish my cigarette away from the pair, knowing that a majority of people consider second hand smoke to be nasty - ESPECIALLY mothers and children.

However, as I began to stand up, the mother whispered something to her kid, and the two began fake coughing dramatically, looking at me all the while. As if they were expecting me to get on my knees and fucking apologise. All right, I get it, I am an evil, horrible person who is knowingly poisoning people (including myself) and the environment with my vices, but that does not give you the right to bloody patronise me in public.

Whatever happened to just asking politely? I would have left regardless. However, after they pulled that shit, I just decided to stay where I sat, and let them cough their throats raw.

 

[Haliwali]

A little on topic, a little off.

I was smoking a fag down at my local bus stop the other day

First off, I think I'm becoming a little dyslexic because at first I read that as "I was a smoking fag..." very different meaning.

Second when people pull crap like that, I usually start doing it just to piss them off. Maybe I'm just a douche like that.

 

[Wesker_Chick]

OP, while I am very VERY anti-smoking, I say some of the blame does fall to Tobacco companies, but much of the blame actually rests on hollywood. In our parents & grandparents' time, it was movies and TV shows that marketed smoking as "cool". Also, blame the government for never having banned it.

To me the government has regulated smoking as far as they need to (At least here in the states) when they said you had to be 18 to buy a pack of cigarettes. Other than that I think they need to keep their noses out of the publics business. As I said, I used to smoke, and many recent changes in smoking laws piss me off event though they no longer effect me.

Prohibiting smoking in public (ie resturaunts, bars, bowling alleys) is going too far. It should be the establishment's descsion as to whether they want patrons smoking or not. People who smoke are being treated like second hand citizens, which isn't right no matter how you feel on the subject.

As for banning smoking...well we all know how well prohibition worked...

 

[werepossum]

A little on topic, a little off.

I was smoking a fag down at my local bus stop the other day

First off, I think I'm becoming a little dyslexic because at first I read that as "I was a smoking fag..." very different meaning.

Second when people pull crap like that, I usually start doing it just to piss them off. Maybe I'm just a douche like that.

Seconded to both points. People being assholes should be treated to second-hand smoke at best. And yes, those Truth adverts are as asinine as anything on television. Which is quite an accomplishment, really, as there's so much competition.

The whole smoking/anti-smoking culture is weird. I tried it of course as a teenager, and it was like sucking on a tailpipe. Why would I choose to "get used to" something that's like sucking on a tailpipe? And I saw a woman interviewed on television who claimed she would wake up in the middle of the night if her neighbor, about a hundred meters away, lit up a cigarette even if both houses had their windows closed. WTF? It's like the very concept of smoking makes people insane.

I've a friend who's a heavy smoker and also a very big Democrat. We're in a restaurant one day (in the smoking section because he smokes throughout his meal and I neither smoke nor am I particularly bothered by smoke) and he's telling me how evil Republicans are (common theme) and I mentioned that the Democratic governor had recently announced his intention to ban smoking in all public places, including bars and restaurants. His response was "Great - I wish they would just make it illegal." The idea that someone would choose to do something and yet hope the government would make him stop doing it, just blows me away.

EDIT: Amen Wesker_Chick. If the government doesn't trust us to decide whether or not to smoke, why would we assume it will trust us with anything important? (Corollary to the McDonald's lawsuit axiom that if we're not responsible for where we eat lunch, we're not responsible for anything.) And if the government steps in and says you can't allow smoking in your own business establishment or home, what other rules can it establish?

 

[Nikomikiri]

However, as I began to stand up, the mother whispered something to her kid, and the two began fake coughing dramatically, looking at me all the while. As if they were expecting me to get on my knees and fucking apologise. All right, I get it, I am an evil, horrible person who is knowingly poisoning people (including myself) and the environment with my vices, but that does not give you the right to bloody patronise me in public.

Whatever happened to just asking politely? I would have left regardless. However, after they pulled that shit, I just decided to stay where I sat, and let them cough their throats raw.

I'd have gone a step further and blown the smoke in their direction. That type of behavior isn't called for and is just plain rude. Nobody knows how to ask politely anymore.

Now, along the lines of people acting like pricks, I work at McDonald's. Ha ha, yes, I'm a fast food employee. The one I work at is the cleanest fast food place in town, always passes health inspections with flying colors, etc. while all the other places in town have recently been close to failing. (The only reason the Hardee's in town didn't get shut down is because they carted all their dirty equipment off in the manager's truck. I worked there at one point too, so I can imagine that happening)
Now, I get to deal with all of my friends complaining when I go to work about how bad the food there is for you and all that. I'm getting so sick and tired of it because not a damn one of them has a right to complain. They talk about how it makes you fat and clogs your arteries, basically the same arguments that the people who sue the company use. Guess what precious, it's your own damn fault if you eat this food so much that you get fat. If all you do is sit at home then drive up to McDonald's to eat, you're going to gain weight.
I've actually heard somebody who was sitting IN THE RESTARAUNT talking about how McDonald's shouldn't be allowed to serve the sandwich she was eating because of how many calories it had.

Then the obese people who complain about smokers.

I don't know how I've lasted so long without punching somebody.