Model on anti-smoking bus shelter ad coughs when smokers walk by

[Sagoli]

@GulliverFoyle

I agree that people are saddled with complexes. What I mean is that they shouldn’t be. And yes, I hear the rebuttal that what should be is immaterial and what is is all that matters. But we, as a society, can change this. But to do so we have to stop tolerating the people who lay false claim to the moral high ground. Lots of people know it’s wrong. Lot’s of people understand that ethically there’s no rationale for treating people as lesser human beings for having different lifestyles, body-types, sexual orientations, ect… But so often the busybodies are treated with the respect they refuse to show others. That needs to stop. It’s got to made socially costly for them to treat people that way. Which means condemnation, contempt, push-back and no quarter given to their moral house of cards. If we start going after them, they’ll think twice before preying on people. The simple fact is that they’re in the wrong. The only reason they win is because society lets them go unchallenged.

So yes, someone who’s feeling of self-worth is deflated by prejudice is having a human reaction. But the answer is to tell them they’re not worth less just because assholes tell them they are, and also to go after the assholes and put them in the virtual stockades because they’re the ones who are actually causing problems

I don’t disagree with this. I’m just saying that fake coughing and shaming smokers with billboards is in my mind, is a busy-body tactic, and unlikely to acheive the desired effect.

[anon48584343]

@wysinwyg

shaming addicts

I’d think of this as more of a nudge that your smoke is killing me (you) not shaming. It’s like someone shining their iPhone light in your face at a restaurant while trying to read a menu. “Hey man! Turn your fucking light off! It’s blinding me! Thank you very much.” Only deadlier.

It’s advertising. They are trying to sell a product. They got your attention. Mission accomplished. If you have issue with the means well, there are plenty of folks who will tell you that ad agencies have checked their souls, integrity, etc. at the door. The product they are attempting to sell is for the greater good of saving lives and I doubt very seriously if shaming was part of their strategy.

It would have been funnier with Gieco Caveman.

[GulliverFoyle]

@Sagoli

I’m just saying that fake coughing and shaming smokers with billboards is in my mind, is a busy-body tactic, and unlikely to acheive the desired effect.

Oh I agree. I think it will mainly piss people off. I doubt it will sell the anti-smoking products the pharmacy hopes it will.

[ficuswhisperer]

@wysinwyg

On BoingBoing and other liberal websites, there is a pretty consistent line on addiction: it should be treated as a disease rather than a crime or a social dysfunction, and shaming addicts is both pragmatically counterproductive from a treatment perspective and just morally wrong.

I see your point – but unlike many other vices, smoking directly impacts the health of those around you. If you’re an alcoholic you may drive drunk and kill someone, but you’re not physically harming someone in the general vicinity while you’re in the act of drinking.

[crashproof]

Smoke if you must. But please don’t do it RIGHT NEXT TO DOORS, where people who are asthmatic, allergic, or otherwise sensitive to it have to walk right through the miasma, and where depending on weather conditions, it gets sucked inside every time someone enters or leaves.

And don’t do it next to a door that says “no smoking within 15 feet of building” while sitting at one of four picnic tables within 15 feet of that door, which all have “no smoking” signs on them plus a big metal sign that also says “no smoking”.

[bolamig]

Thought experiment: Which closed room would you survive longer: the one with your running car or the one with a burning cigarette?

[anon48584343]

@bolamig

Thought

Would it be in a yellowed room already caked with nicotine?

Is the car electric?

The scale issue is intriguing.

Where did I leave my car keys?

[dingobaby]

Yes, all very clever, but extremely condescending.

Best plan is to chain smoke underneath it and ensure the advert never works due to continual cough reactions as well as all the pious people avoiding the same ad and your deadly secondhand smoke amongst all those invisible diesel fumes.

[Nightflyer]

I was just thinking, I’ve known smokers who would consider that billboard not a rebuke, but a challenge.

[bobtato]

I was at a train station one time, and I saw someone smoking, alone, at the end of the deserted open-air platform opposite. So I walked down to that end and called across that he wasn’t allowed to smoke there because it was against the rules. Naturally, after that, I was worried for my health so I went to my doctor and she told me that I was a stage 4 prick. There’s nothing that can be done.

(the first part of that story is true, with the roles reversed; I inferred the second part)

[LDoBe]

Yup. If I were a vindictive dick, it’d be very tempting to spend half a pack putting out my cigarettes on that video screen.

[Kasey_Greene]

It only reminds to light-up.

[miasm]

Let’s face it, this ad is not for the benefit of smokers.

It exists in order to top up non-smokers already overbrimming cups of sanctimonious self-righteousness.

Next up, an ad where a young, vegan woman throws up every time someone eating a hamburger walks past.

[Wanderfound]

@anon15383236

I don’t think this billboard is meant to provoke shame in smokers so much as raise awareness, or just provide a reminder, that others find secondhand smoke both annoying and harmful to their health.

It’s an advertising billboard for a commercial product.

It’s meant to create profits.

[Wanderfound]

@ficuswhisperer

I see your point – but unlike many other vices, smoking directly impacts the health of those around you. If you’re an alcoholic you may drive drunk and kill someone, but you’re not physically harming someone in the general vicinity while you’re in the act of drinking.

Unless you are (a) severely asthmatic, already dying from emphysema, etc. or (b) spend a substantial portion of your lifetime in an environment smoky enough to make your eyes water, then other people’s smoking will have no significant effect on your health whatsoever.

[ficuswhisperer]

@Wanderfound

Unless you are (a) severely asthmatic, already dying from emphysema, etc. or (b) spend a substantial portion of your lifetime in an environment smoky enough to make your eyes water, then other people’s smoking will have no significant effect on your health whatsoever.

This message was brought to you by Philip Morris.

[LDoBe]

It’d be nice if they didn’t take away all the ashtrays when they basically outlawed smoking in public. At least in Japan there’s little smoke sheds so your smoke doesn’t bug people, and also you can get out of the elements and have a proper place to put your butts.

I’ve been yelled at for depositing my butts in the trash. Usually I’ll look them in the eye and mashing the cold butt on my tongue to prove I’m not an arsonist.

[Wanderfound]

@ficuswhisperer

This message was brought to you by Philip Morris.

A company that we used to routinely refuse funding from back when I worked in the psychopharmacology labs, BTW.

Passive smoking is a real thing that killed a significant amount of people, back when every bar/bus/taxi/train/etc was in a permanent dense fog. The occasional wisp on the street is not the same thing.

[miasm]

That image is going to stay with me for a while!

[LDoBe]

I’m a smoker. It’s not like I have a great sense of taste anyway.