New Anti Smoking Ads Are Beyond Graphic – Let’s Hope It Works

* This article contains graphic material.  Avoid this article if you have a weak stomach (however they will be all over the TV soon).

The new anti smoking ads by the CDC are the most graphic commercials to hit Tv.  Will the hard truth help millions  of smokers quit???

  These ads won’t JUST be on tv, they will be plastered on billboards, on the radio, magazines and newspapers.     The ad campaign known as “Tips From Former Smokers,”  gives a graphic look at people who have lost limbs, lungs, and have had tracheotomies.  In past years people have been spared the harsh facts.  This new campaign thinks that Americans need to know the truth about smoking and feels that this is the way to do it!

     54 million dollars was spent by the CDC (center for Disease Control) on this advertising campaign.  While this amount may seem outrageous, the CDC knows that it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the 27 million dollars that tobacco companies spend PER DAY to reel in new smokers and keep old smokers hooked.

     Kathleen Sebelius,  of the “La Times,” says that these ads are

“Meant to be “a wake-up call” to smokers who may not truly grasp the dangers that still exist (source).”

   This campaign will run for 12 weeks and is aimed at getting 50,000 people to give up the smoking.   That’s only a fraction of the 443,000 people that die annually from smoking related deaths.

   Let’s cross our fingers that these graphic ads create a wave of rebellion against the tobacco companies and empower people to get beyond the addiction, the brainwashing and hopelessness associated with smoking.