Smoking is an addiction and many people are unable to overcome it. It is bad for health. Anti-smoking advertisements display messages that condemn smoking. They highlight its bad effects. It is mandatory for cigarette companies to carry the message on the cigarette pack that smoking is injurious to health. Yet, smoking persists. People continue to smoke. In fact, a large number of them are addicted to it. Let us evaluate this further.
How Effective are Anti-smoking Cigarette Advertisements?
- The tobacco industry generally does not favor any efforts on the part of the Government to restrict smoking. Companies prefer to retain their profits. They also try to quash many campaigns
- Many anti-smoking advertisements have negative impact on children. They fail to generate the anti-smoking attitude among them. This has been highlighted in the American Journal of Public Health. Teenagers do not often believe all that is mentioned in some anti-smoking campaigns. In fact, there is an opposite effect on the person exposed to the advertisement
- An indifferent attitude prevails, and smokers continue to smoke irrespective of the warning on the cigarette pack that smoking is bad for health
- Research conducted by a University of California professor concludes that the anti-smoking television advertisements across the United States used ineffective tactics. Long term health effects stated by these advertisements are not effective
- The messages conveyed by these advertisements have to be very effective. The seriousness of the issue should be highlighted
- A study in the July issue (2005) journal, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, states that there has been a decrease in smoking and the youth favored an anti-smoking attitude, after being exposed to state-sponsored anti-tobacco advertisements.
Anti-smoking cigarette advertisements have been effective when the messages have serious implications. Of course, the tobacco industry has been trying to retain its hegemony in the sale of cigarettes. Yet, socially- conscious individuals have been conducting campaigns to highlight the bad effects of smoking.
