During the past several years, there have been many embellished anti-smoking and anti-vaping commercials aimed at teens, but is this the best way to discourage them? For example, in the South Park episode, “My Future Self ‘n’ Me,” the kids' parents hire adults from a company titled Motivation Corp. to act as future versions of the children and explain to them how drugs, alcohol, and smoking ruined their lives. Commercials in the episode are tremendously exaggerated, such as portraying that marijuana causes terrorism. The kids are upset with their parents for lying to them as one the characters, Stan, claims he would rather have been told the truth, as I’m sure many adolescents would agree. The intention of this episode was to exemplify that embellished commercials and lies aren’t as effective as honesty--which is often preferred.
I recall watching Nickelodeon and one of the commercials was burned into my brain. It consisted of a teenage girl purchasing a box of cigarettes from a liquor store and not having enough money so she tore a piece of her skin from her face to pay. This is not an accurate depiction of the effects of smoking, and, as a kid, was scary and uncomfortable. For a teen, this commercial was likely considered dumb and unrealistic, and breezed right past them.
As Postman points out in Amusing Ourselves To Death, television shapes many aspects of our lives; thus, I do not think frightening children will have very beneficial effects. Fear is not the way to discourage teens from smoking and such disturbing commercials should not be streamed on a kids channel--or streamed at all. If anti-smoking and -vaping commercials continue (and I’m sure they will), they should advertise accurate information and be more “kid-friendly,” like the commercials that illustrate the positive effects of being smoke free.
I could not agree more with what you said. There needs to be some sort of reform when it comes to educating children about potential dangers. That being said, the commercials still need to be realistic enough that the viewer can differentiate the commercial from a television program. It seems companies just need to find a happy medium between realism and age-appropriate content for young viewers when it comes to anti-drug commercials.
ReplyDeleteI agree that anti-smoking commercials aren't really benefitting the youth. These commercials are unable to keep teens from smoking. Their minds are prone to impulsivity ad rash decisions, which is another factor for why they'd do these harmful things. I also agree with how you said that these commercials are unrealistic and vivid while the message is not valued enough.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It would be much more beneficial if anti-smoking ads showed the good side of being smoke free as a way to entice young kids to want to not use such products. I can see where these commercials are coming from though, as it's thought that "scaring" kids into not wanting to do something will make them obey. Parents have been scaring their children for years (think of the Boogie Man who takes misbehaving children). I think this is what the commercials were trying to do. They wanted to make kids believe that their skin would fall of if they started to smoke, much like how kids thought the Boogie Man would take them if they didn't listen to their parents.
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