There was an article in the Times the other day - apprarently that is precisely the effect of the anti-teen-smoking ad blitzes.

All I could think of when I read that article was that subplot in Thank You For Smoking (book, not movie) -- the ad they [they = the tabacco lobby group] commissioned ended up with the tagline "Everything your parents told you about smoking is right."

But when I get over that initial reaction, I still feel like most anti-drug campaigns are just so... unctuous, deliberately misleading, and just plain lame

YES!

The only one I've ever liked is the kid who talks about how he used to think his big brother could do anything but now bro just lives in his parents basement and gets stoned. I appreciated that ad.

Of course, the best anti-drug campaign ever is The Osbornes.

I want to run through those horrifying medievalists who are fighting tobacco. All I see with them is "Only clueless dorks fight against tobacco! Run, run far away!" They give a bad name to historical recreationists everywhere.

There were a bunch in MA when I was in college that were rough stuff -- first-person testimonials about How Smoking Messed UP My Body.

Most notable was one by a 22 year old woman with emphysema. I mean, when you think about it, she'd have to be smoking 20 cigarettes at once, and continuously since birth for that emphysema not to have some other (genetic, e.g.) factor, but seeing a 22 year old woman with narsty lungs and O2 in a tube and a thousand meds to take daily tends to ram the point home.

And then there was the local-interest one, which was about how OBVIOUSLY smoking is addictive, because only an addict or a nut would stand outside in the freezing cold in the middle of winter to smoke.

I saw a tv show once with before and after pics of meth users that was pretty convincing. They should do a time-lapse of someone's teeth and skin after smoking for a few years.

"If you don't care about your health, quit for vanity!"

the one I hate the most exposes Project Scum (Sub Culture Urban Marketing) which really was offensive and appalling, etc.

but its some annoying sanctimonious 20 year old hippie standing there with an elderly homeless black man introducing him "this is my friend Morris..." and Morris (or whatever his name actually was) reads the really offensive leaked tobacco company memo...

but "my friend"? puhleeze. like you two are going to catch a game after the shoot. like you've been hanging out at Starbucks and one day hippie boy said, "hey, Morris, I'm working on this ad campaign... it won't be exploitative AT ALL"

I'm thinking 4 is not going to be early enough to leave. We should be looking at in the next 30 min or so. I just ran outside to de ice the car- oh, and to smoke.

"If you don't care about your health, quit for vanity!"

There was an anti-steriod campaign in high schools that targeted teenage girls along those lines. "See these zits? See how she looks like a guy?" I was impressed.

I hate everyone who ever raved about Zappos.

I may be getting these: [link]

Or...oh, my god, I found the exact same shoe I currently own which is falling apart as we speak. I take it back. I love you all.

Yeah, just as long as the commercials aren't trying to convince me that I'll blow my best friend's head off with my dad's gun if we smoke some weed.

Dude, I don't know what kind of weed those boys were smoking, but in my experience it should have involved a lot more loopy conversations about existentialism and trips to Jimmy John's.