Thursday, June 14, 2007

Smoking Kills, and So Does Overhype

Rachel brought her wireless laptop, which I suspect will severely degrade the quality of our "vacation". As a side effect, I can post from Ben Gurion airport.

The windows in the duty free shops are filled with cigarette boxes. They used to say "Just what the doctor ordered". Then they said nothing. Then they said that nicotine is addictive. Then that they might be "hazardous to your health". Then that they cause various health problems.

Now the labels simply say "SMOKING KILLS" or "SMOKING HARMS YOU AND OTHERS AROUND YOU" in big fat letters that take up the entire side of the box.

What next? "Smoking will rip your arms off and beat you about the head and body"? They keep upping the bar, but there comes a point where the warnings just begin to sound ridiculous. I see a guy smoking. He wasn't killed. Does that mean the warning is false?

Eve had this same problem with the apple, as I recall.

Overhype will kill your message as surely as underhype.

Yehuda

3 comments:

AmendmentMe said...

I think you have a great point! However, I believe people know that smoking is harmful to their health and just don't care. They aren't think about the future consequences of smoking. Therefore, it doesn't matter what the label says! What needs to change is the values which are insteeled into people because the decision to not smoke comes from within each person. I read a great article about smoking filled with facts and good info, here it is if you would like to check it out: Smoking Could Kill 1 Billion This Century

Yehuda Berlinger said...

I think there are some people who would prefer to live shorter lives that they enjoy fully rather than longer ones in a spartan manner.

Yehuda

AmendmentMe said...

My point exactly! It doen't matter what the warning label says! And yes, so many people have that outlook on life. What a stupid outlook--I gonna go all out and live to till I'm 20!