Smoking or non

I have mentioned many times the amount of "warning" TV (and print) ads there are. There are so many diseases you almost wonder how one avoids getting at least something. The non-smoking campaigns are really ramping up. Last year we had the guy with the hole in his throat who can NEVER swim..We also had the doc saying you could HEAR lung cancer before seeing it. They had some poor victim laying down with a massive tube arrangement down her throat. Another horrible image was a clogged artery which resembled a side dish shown on the travel channel's bizarre food show with Andrew Zimmern.. (he eats bugs and animal testicles)

The most recent notable anti-smoking ad is this four-year-old kid left alone in the airport when his mother goes away. The camera stays on him and in about 15 second he's panicky and crying.. It IS very disturbing and the point is to see how he reacts if he loses his mother for 30 seconds.. Suppose she died from smoking and was gone forever..well, I guess this kid would really have a cow but hopefully not in an airport. There was a lot of controversy about this particular ad this week. I had the time to monitor this. Mr overkill - Matt Lauer - interviewed the head of the ad agency from Australia. The agency claimed the kid was an actor..Skeptical Matt didn't believe her and belabored the point..

They are saying these ads are very effective. When I smoked - 30 years ago - there was just those little warnings on the side of the pack which did nothing. I guess people are taking the latest warnings more seriously.. The only people I see smoking are clustered outside of office buildings' doorways in any kind of weather...Maybe they don't have TV sets??