Friday, 4 December 2015

It's OK When We Do It

Talk to any tobacco controller and they'll tell you that merely seeing a glimpse of a packet of smokes will have kids falling over themselves to light up. It's why advertising has been banned, packs are hidden behind shutters, and even colour schemes on the packets are now being prohibited. Far too dangerous to children!

So just imagine if someone evil decided to post lots of cigarette adverts on Tumblr, a social media network overwhelmingly used by teens and young people. Wouldn't that be wicked?

Yellow is 18-24, red 25-34, teens not supposed to be there but are (from here)
Because that is exactly what one Tumblr account is doing.

There's something for the girls ...


Something for the boys ...


And what kid can possibly resist a cartoon animal, eh?


Shake your fist at those nasty Big Tobacco barons bringing tobacco advertising to a whole new young generation, eh? Evil bastards!

Except it's not. It's the Tumblr run by the University of California, San Francisco's anti-smoking department, home of global anti-tobacco guru Stanton Glantz - trusted by the WHO and CDC - who believes that just seeing someone smoking in a film will addict millions of kids, and that any adverts exhibiting tobacco will get youngsters hooked on smoking in a matter of seconds.

Good that they have their ducks lined up nicely, isn't it? Good grief.

UPDATE: The Tumblr disappeared the next day. How odd?


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