Stop Smoking

It seems that the risk of death is not working to get people to quit smoking. This alone speaks to the addictive nature of cigarettes and the obsessive personalities of the people addicted. I don’t think those “Truth” commercials help anyone except for non-smokers to get angrier at tobacco companies by exposing their practices.

One radio campaign I have heard speaks to the economic aspect of smoking. People explain how they have stopped smoking and have saved X thousands of dollars a year — an interesting spin on a materialist society. Don’t care that you are shortening your life and ruining your lungs — think of the money you would save! I don’t think this is going to work either.

People have been wondering how much gas prices would have to go up before people change their buying habits. I don’t think any price would be too high. Every time I go to fill up, there is always a huge line to buy gas. Don’t these people know how much gas costs? — Probably not. Give them your already over-extended credit card and you never even realize how much you are spending. How much does a pack of cigarettes cost? Does it matter?

The newest campaign against smoking has been a television commercial which features a man who has had throat cancer and now breathes through a little hole in his neck. He speaks using one of those electronic voice boxes, which interestingly retains his Spanish accent.

I have seen two commercials featuring this gentleman. One of them shows him getting ready in the morning, using a cotton swab to clean the hole in his throat and covering it with a neckerchief and speaking with his voice box. The tagline, “nothing will every be the same.” The other version shows a swimming pool as the gentleman explains how he used to love swimming and now cannot because he would drown from water entering his breathing hole. Again the tagline, “nothing will ever be the same.”

I guess this one is trying to paint the smoking related consequences as less dramatic and fatal, but more practical and certainly less than glamorous. I hope they help.

I have always heard that the only thing that happens when you talk to smokers about what has happened to other smokers is that they just smoke more. Part of the reason they smoke is to overcome anxiety.

A new study suggests that a snap decision to stop smoking is two to three times more effective than planning for it. Have the desire to quit and then one day just act on it.

Whatever works for you — stop smoking.

Add comment June 13th, 2006