Will self-hating smokers help others to quit?

To explain its latest salvo for the Washington State Department of Health, WongDoody asks: "Amid mounting home foreclosures, worsening unemployment and an ugly healthcare crisis, how do you convince the working poor to give up what is often their only stress-relief tool -- cigarettes? Simple. You can't. They need to convince themselves." Though well intentioned, these 60-second documentary-style "Dear Me" spots, with low-income smokers reading letters to themselves, have a few things going against them. First, they're a bit manipulative, with overly bleak shots like the collection of kids' toys around a filthy ashtray. But they also leave you wondering, if these people are so self-aware that they would shred themselves in TV anti-smoking ads, what hope is there is for every other smoker out there? Besides, the folks in the spots appear so miserable, it would almost be adding insult to injury to deny them a cigarette.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

July 6, 2009 in Anti-smoking, Gianatasio, WongDoody | Permalink