A series of hard-hitting government adverts featuring people smoking cigarettes with a tumour bulging from them is being launched in England.
In times of austerity, one could reasonably suppose that cutting one’s unnecessary expenditure would be top of the list. Not so with the rabid anti-smoking lobby.
The ads will tell smokers that just 15 cigarettes can cause a mutation that leads to cancerous tumours in what marks a return to shock campaigning.
Except that this is demonstrably not true – just as second hand smoke killing people is demonstrably not true. The very least we should expect of an information film is information; not lies. And, yes, we are paying for this claptrap.
XX just as second hand smoke killing people is demonstrably not true. XX
Hmmm. We KNOW it is not true, but, being fair (Because WE are the GOOD guys in this war!), that IS “proving a negative”.
“No evidence” does NOT equal “demonstrably not true.”
It’s thoroughly depressing to see public money being used for a campaign which is no more than propaganda, and with such a tenuous link to facts. Isn’t there a law about this? Misrepresentation, or something? You can be sure that if a private company made the sort of claims that the anti-smoking lobby do, proof would be demanded, and if not forthcoming would result in severe sanctions.
An interesting link from the comments at Simon Clark’s blog to an article by a doctor bemoaning the lack of funds due to the fact that all the blame for LC was put on smoking, yet only 20% of LC cases are smokers. But all the funding goes to anti-smoking. Not to LC research. (H/T Peter Thurgood)
Edit. Forgot to post the link! Doh…
http://lungcancer.about.com/b/2012/11/29/why-anti-smoking-campaigns-arent-enough-to-eliminate-lung-cancer-deaths.htm
It’ll be interesting to see how the adverts are received. When certain facts are put across that even normal people hear and think “that doesn’t sound right” then the whole advert starts getting questioned. One fact being that it just takes a 15 cigarettes to start a cancer. Not just 15/day, or week or even year. 15 full stop. So just trying a few cigarettes will commit you to a life of pain and cancer.
Can anyone seriously think that just 15 cigarettes will kill you? When you have so many other sources of cancer from pollution etc. When you have more smoke from BBQs than people breath in from SHS.
It could become a laughing stock and actually a counter productive advert.