I recently watched a video on Facebook donning a little boy in "street" clothes and a cigarette tucked behind each of his ears. As he goes around, asking adults to light a cigarette for him, it is at first humorous to watch them--cigarettes in hand and smoke billowing from their mouths--scold the child or ask him where his parents are.
There are a few who light it for him but most send him away, yelling that he's making a mistake and doesn't he know how bad that is for him? I've seen videos like this before: people put in odd or uncomfortable situations and recorded to see what their responses would be. Mostly they're funny pranks, catching people off guard and in the end resulting in an outburst of laughter and humor. At the start, this video was no different. It's the end that sparks the most interest.
The little boy approaches a man, and asks the man to help him light a cigarette. The man then proceeds to use his electrolanrynx to speak to the boy, a kazoo-like sound emitting from his throat. When the little boy asks why the man sounds like that, the man proceeds to tell him that he lost his voice because he has cancer after smoking two packs a day for a long time.
"You see all the ads on Facebook. You see all the commercials on TV. Everybody thinks it's a joke. This is for real."
The man, Ryan, is right. The brutal commercials and the graphic ads are all there for a reason. Ad campaigns like ones from the Truth, are aimed toward teenagers, giving them all the facts they need to make the right choices when it comes to smoking. Their website provides over 200 facts about smoking and cigarettes and presents all of their commercials as seen on TV networks like TeenNick.
Their homepage states "Now only 8% of teens smoke. That's down from 23% in 2000 and 9% from last year." Truth's mission is to #FinishIt, and bring those percentages down to 0%. The FDA provides The Real Cost Campaign with commercials you've probably seen before. They present graphic commercials, like ones with people pulling out their teeth or ripping off their skin, to show viewers what you could potentially be giving up when you take on the habit of smoking cigarettes.
It's campaigns and videos like these that are changing the smoking scene in the United States, especially among teens. Explaining to kids and teens at young ages that the habit of smoking is a dangerous one, that it's just not worth it, is one of the most important things the older generations of today can do. I don't have to explain to you the effects of smoking, as I'm sure you've heard them before, but providing that kind of information to younger generations is going to continue to make those numbers drop, and is going to continue to make the differences that these campaigns strive to make.
Ryan says to the boy, "Promise me you'll never smoke a cigarette. Just promise me you'll not smoke a cigarette."
Ryan would prevent a child from smoking. Would you?
