Survey on Smoking. . .

I made a survey on survey monkey to see approximately how many people out of my group of facebook friends still smoke and out of those that do why? In total 22 people took the survey. 72% of those that took the survey do not smoke. The rest of the people who took the survey gave varied reasons for why. Many said that they started at a young age to look cool, or because their friends did. One person said that they stole a pack of cigarettes from their friends parents the first time they smoked. Many people said they stopped after college due to health concerns. I asked those who continue to smoke why they do it. One person said it was for stress relief saying that they had successfully quit for 9 years but went back to it because, "Smoking is the only time I feel like I can stop and pause life for a few minutes." When asked about how anti smoking advertising have influenced their decisions several people said they did in fact help them considerably. 

Here is the link to the survery: 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3VMJDTS

3 Different Anti Smoking Messages.

This week we saw three different messages. Message #1 is a fear inducing message. It can often be an affective deterrent for smoking, however sometimes it can cause longtime smokers to roll their eyes. However peripheral processing messages like the ones coyly used in the series mad men can be affective without the viewer even knowing they are receiving the message. Finally in the two sided argument we see that although smokers will come up with any number of reasons why they are justified in what they are doing, ultimately their choices are damaging their short term and long term health.

Smoking - A Two Sided Argument.

Our Argument: 

Smoking is bad for you. Here on my blog, you've probably realized that I am of the opinion that smoking is not good for you. It can lead to a myriad of health problems up to and including death, and can be dangerous to those around you. 

Smoker's may say: 

My grandma smoked every day and she lived to be 90 years old. Or - We're all going to die anyway. 

Experts would say: 

While there are exceptions to every rule, and grandma sure did prove to be resilient it is a proven fact that smoking can dramatic cut down on ones life span. It is true that we are all going to die at some point, but would why make it a more painful demise that it had to be? 

Peripheral Route Processing - Smoking is clearly not good for you!

The video below displays a compilation of many cigarettes smoked during the AMC Drama Mad Men. This video could be seen as an anti smoking message using peripheral route processing because while watching the series your many focus is the story line, but in your periphery vision you are seeing that often times when the character on the show lights up a cigarette they cough right after taking their first puff. It's a not so subtle way of showing the viewer how bad smoking is for you and it's a way of poking fun at this era when people refused to believe as much. Smokers who watch this show get a constant reminder in there periphery of just how bad smoking is for them.


Mad Smoke: Every Cigarette Smoked in Mad Men - YouTube

A Tip From a Former Smoker (Fear Inducing Ad)

Here is an example of a fear inducing ad. It meets all of the criteria of a fear inducing ad.
The problem is severe; the risk of cancer with life altering consequences is a serious risk. If you are a smoker you are absolutely susceptible to this problem. It's likely that this terrible outcome can be avoided if you adopt a non-smoking lifestyle.

Classic Conditioning

In a recent interview Gloria Estefan (age 54) attributed her youthful looks to taking good care of her heath while on the road and staying away from things that would harm her voice, or the rest of her health, like cigarettes.

Classical Conditioning #5

This ad shows celebrity Ryan Gossling appealing to female fans who may smoke. The ad plays off of the funny "hey girl" blog that featured many photos of Gossling.

Classical Conditioning #4

This message could be applied to anything. It doesn't directly tell you to quit smoking. However, when combined with other non-smoking images it gets the message across.

Classical Conditioning #3 - Intensity

This is a  different style of classical conditioning message.  This message is using the intensity method. It is reminding smokers that if they smoke they could lose their life.

Classical Conditioning #2

Here is another example of good looking people looking chic and fashionable without having to smoke.

Classical Conditioning #1

This photo shows a group of attractive people partying, socializing and looking great without smoking. This shows the message that you don't have to smoke to look cool and have a great time. In fact people who don't smoke, look more attractive and have even more fun.

How can we social engineer our way away from this problem?

One way of social engineering over the years is that smoking has been banned almost everywhere. The less and less places someone is able to smoke the more they are impacted with the impression that it is not good for them! In addition There have been many good television ads over the years to help discourage smoking.

Some of the ads can be quite graphic like this one:

 Tips for former smokers

Technology & Smoking: The good & The Bad.

As a kid I remember all of my uncles smoked. There were some restaurants we'd go to where they literally had vending machines that sold cigarettes. While vending machines are a very convenient innovation they certainly aren't good for the health of smokers or society. As society has moved forward it has been generally decided that cigarette smoking is not good for you. However as we saw in our most recent post over 43 million Americans still smoke anyway. As technology has progressed there have been many innovations in technology to help people to quit smoking slowly by weening themselves off the main drug which is nicotine. Innovations have included gums, and patches to help get people to reduce their use of the drugs slowly and then eventually all together.

 
In addition to gums and patches there recently has been the innovation of electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes. This is a great innovation because it eliminates all of the harsh carcinogens, hazardous chemicals and smoke from smoking and simply leaves the nicotine and the physical actions.

However, nicotine is still not good for you and there are some concerns will taking puffs off a device that is battery operated. As well there are concerns regarding children being attracted to the e-cigarettes. It would be more difficult to keep them out of the hands of children. More information on the cons of e-cigarettes can be found in this ABC news article. E Cigarette Cons

The earliest known use of tobacco in the USA was by the Indians. The indians believed that tobacco was a healer of all things. Later when America was involved in the revolutionary war Tobacco was used as collateral for the loans that would help fund that war. As early as 1836 it was stated by New Englander Samuel Green that tobacco was actually poisonous, and could be deadly. In 1847 the famous Cigarette company Philip Morris is founded. Nearly a hundred years later iconic cartoon versions of Lucy and Ricky from "I Love Lucy" smoke Philip Morris Cigarettes in the original opening credits of their world famous television show. By the 1960's many health risks associated with smoking cigarettes began to be widely reported, by 1971 cigarette ads are no longer allowed on television in the U.S. By 1982 smoking is largely restricted in public areas, especially work environments, after it is discovered that lung cancer can be caused by second hand smoke. Also in 1982 lung cancer becomes the biggest killer in women before breast cancer. Today cigarette smoking is still the leading cause of preventable death in our country. In 2012 an estimated 43 million adults are still regular cigarette smoking. 

Sources: 

http://www.stopsmokingbible.com/how-many-people-in-america-smoke-cigarettes

http://archive.tobacco.org/resources/history/Tobacco_History20-2.html

http://academic.udayton.edu/health/syllabi/tobacco/history.htm