Has anyone else caught any of those graphic new anti-smoking ads? (That is not a link to the ads -- it is a link to a story The Buffalo News ran about them.)
I have not seen any of the television spots, but if the radio ads are any indication, I do not want to. I am wondering about other people's reactions to this new campaign. In a way I am afraid to speak up, because please don't misunderstand me: If this campaign helps smokers stop smoking, it must be worth it. It is just that I personally cannot stand these ads. They are too much for me.
Last night, cleaning up the kitchen, I tuned in to WBEN-AM to see what they were talking about and that was when I heard this radio ad for the first time. This guy breathing this ratchety breathing and hacking and coughing... You know what? I don't smoke. I have never smoked. I do not even know how to smoke -- cigarettes, pot, anything. I am not the intended audience, you know? And I am used to weathering long chains of grating ads but this was too much. It was absolutely excruciating. I actually could not last through the 30 seconds. I switched the radio off.
This morning it happened again. I wanted to hear the topic of the morning talk show but when I turned on the radio, there was the hacking again. I switched to WNED-FM and they were playing a Brahms symphony and I stayed with that.
I acknowledge that it is admirable for radio stations to air these messages, but my personal experience makes me wonder if it will hurt their audience. As a non-smoker I do not want to have to sit through 30 seconds of aural torture. I am sorry but I am only human and my day is stressful enough.
That radio goes off and it does not go back on. I find something else to listen to.
I am wondering what everyone else does. Suffer these ads -- or switch them off?
-- Mary Kunz Goldman
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Current Affairs | Television