Putting a Stop to Smoking

According to “The Action of Smoking and Health,” every six seconds someone loses their life as a result of a tobacco related disease. It’s hard to realize how damaging cigarette smoking’s effect can be until you experience it first hand. It is almost certain that every one knows someone who is currently a smoker or was a smoker at some point in their life. For years smoking was the seen as the “cool” thing to do, it was how to “fit in.” There was no real emphasis placed on the dangers of this particular habit, and as a result, it became a world wide trend. In the past, technology and medicine were not nearly advanced enough to be able to determine just how harmful tobacco usage is. However, as we have made medical and

Tobacco companies advertise in magazines, promote their products in convenience stores and market their brands through websites and social networks. Many of these tobacco industries get publicity and attract more young customers when using the newly in media to promote their products. Many of these tobacco companies don’t understand that tobacco advertising is a huge public health issue that increases smoking. Tobacco company advertising and promoting is the start of the use of tobacco among teenagers. Now, these media and magazine advertisements about cigars have caused teenagers to be exposed to cigarette advertising. Not only that but also these teenagers find ads appealing and also increase their desire to smoke. Cigarette companies spent about $8.37 billion on advertising and promotional expenses in the United States in 2011.

One of my first memories in the United States was taking a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E) class. I was in sixth grade and a top student, as talking about drugs and alcohol and the way they affect us was fascinating to me. This is why, the following year, I volunteered to become a peer educator in Teens Against Tobacco Use (T.A.T.U). For a couple of years, I gave presentations to young students which included facts, demonstrations, and games, to spread the knowledge that tobacco is harmful and that staying away from smoking prolongs life expectancy and increases the quality of life. It should come as no surprise, then, that I consider myself a big proponent of staying tobacco-free and encouraging others to quit smoking as a great way to promote health. I remember watching my mom and sister as they took part in their nightly ritual of smoking a few cigarettes to unwind. “Did you know that a main component of cigarettes is used as rocket fuel?” I would ask them, as I opened the window and they stared back at me blankly. “We know, we know” was the answer every time. I knew that convincing them to quit was no easy task, but I was committed. Day after day, I proudly stated a new fact about the evils of smoking. Finally one day, they quit. At first, they attributed it to the cost. Since we had just immigrated to the United States, the cost of cigarettes was simply not something they could afford. I didn’t believe it. I proudly

The smoking habit is the principal cause of illness, disability and death around the world. More than five million of people in the world die due to smoking habit every year. If we don’t take care of this in 2030 the amount will be ten million. Seven million of these deaths would be in poor countries.

Smoking continues to be an increasing problem in both the United States and around the world. Advertisements of many types continue to aid in lowering the use of cigarettes by teenagers. In this advertisement, published by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), many rhetorical devices are used to help appeal to the audience’s senses, understanding, and perception on smoking cigarettes. Using a young woman in the advertisement shifts the focus towards teenagers that smoke cigarettes, have thought about smoking, or have been around others that do smoke. With the incorporation of the FDA’s “The Real Cost” campaign logo, facts about the outcome of smoking, and the photograph of the young girl's face, this advertisement serves the purpose of grabbing the attention of teenagers that use cigarettes and warns them of the negative outcomes of smoking by using certain appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos.

Think of someone who you love that smokes, now think of that person getting a fatal diesease that could cause heart attacks,strokes, or cancer. These dieseases are harsh realties for many smokers. The stamp out smoking website released and advertisment that made a major impact. The ad is all black and the main message is smoking kills so why bother starting? This question has caused many smokers to think twice before smoking.

Several changes occurring during this stage and the growing needs alter. It is common during this time for boys to feel masculine and for girls to be concerned about their appearance. Some teenagers become rebellious and may want to defy the mainstream (Eccles, Jacquelynne). Disclosed documents from the tobacco industry’s advertising agencies reveal discussions about how psychosocial drivers are the best way to reach underage youth. Young people’s lifestyles, motivations, and aspirations are the subject of detailed and continuous market research. Everything possible is done to attract and retain their interest. Specifically, the conclusion is drawn repeatedly in these documents that young people smoke for emotional reasons and cigarettes can meet these needs by being aspirational and acting as “a badge” and a “sign of maturity, discernment and independence.” (Teague, Claude). The job of advertising, therefore, is to help build and reinforce these qualities in the

According to ScienceDaily, Anti-Smoking campaigns aimed towards kids are most effective when convincing youth that their friends are listening to the ads (1) . While outdated and ineffective ads focus on telling individuals to avoid tobacco or die horribly, Hye-Jin Paek, assistant professor at UGA College of Journalism and Mass Communication, says new advertisements across the world focus on changing the social norms surrounded by smoking. Instead of an ad saying “every cigarette you smoke takes nine minutes off your life,” these billboards could read “over 66% of Kentucky's high school students are smoke free.” This is a great example of a shifting focus from health risks associated with tobacco to how a young adult's peers feel about tobacco. A social standard is set for high school students when ads clearly state that the vast majority of teens aren't smoking.

In the United States today, more than forty six million Americans are addicted to cigarettes. More people have died due to cigarette smoking than from narcotic drugs, World Wars I and II, and the Vietnam War combined (Bailey 1). The annual death toll for cigarette smoking is more than four-hundred thousand Americans a year, and is the number-one preventable cause of death in the United States. If Americans are aware of the lethal effects of smoking, why is it still so popular? Guy Smith, a Phillip Morris Tobacco Company executive, claims that their research shows that advertising is the top reason people start smoking (Bailey 34). Most people will argue that this is not true because the do not like to be “sold” and

The main problem that does not help convincing our teens that smoking is bad for them is the public media. We see it in commercials, magazines adds, billboards and all over the internet. We need to stop all these type of advertisements, we need to focus on positive advertisement. Why not advertise the consequences of smoking? How we harm our body and the people around us. Kids think it's cool to smoke and that the younger they are, the cooler they think they look. We need to educate our teens by having mandatory smoking prevention programs at school. Once a teen tries their first cigarette, those who continue to smoke will typically hang out with the same-aged friends as their steady source of cigarettes and tobacco (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 183). Typically, an increase in price of tobacco products of 10% causes a fall in smoking of 4% in adults and 6% in children (Jamrozik, 760). Once we increase the price of tobacco products, it will be difficult for our teens to

We know this statement and we see this in advertisements, in slogans, in posters and televisions everywhere and yet smoking still the leading cause of death in America. According to Centers for Communicable diseases, 2017, smoking is still the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States. It kills more people than infectious disease, abuse, firearms, obesity and traffic accidents. Some people do not believe that smoking is harmful to them. Some people do not notice the harm at first and by the time they notice the effects, they are addicted to it already. That is why the Word Health Organization calls it as “gradual killer”. Lastly, according to Sherry McKee, the director of Yale Behavioral Pharmacology Lab, “Most of the smokers think that they can just quit easily at any time and nearly all believe that they won’t be long-term smokers”. These are some of the knowledge gaps in tobacco use.

The authors point out how anti-smoking advertisements do not send a clear message to the students to understand how smoking can impact their health. It seems that the advertisements trick people by sending the wrong message, such as demonstrating that smoking is not as bad as it seems that the more the students see those advertisements, the more propense for the students to smoke. The source is relevant to my hypothesis because it demonstrates that teenagers are unaware of the health consequences that they can get. The author’s goal is for teenagers to understand anti-smoking messages are not explicit and are not demonstrating a clear understanding of the risks that smoking cause. The authors conclude that new advertisements need to be more carefully evaluated for teenagers to recognize that their intentions reflect undesirable outcome in the antismoking advertainments for teenagers to understand smoking and the inevitable result that can be provoked due to smoking.

Advertising for tobacco is another source that cause teenagers smoke and adults smoke. Recently, tobacco companies have found new ways to promote their products to youth. They support their sporting events, concerts and movie. Many people favor idols or stars smoke in the movies and they seems very cool. And Teenagers are curious about imitation. Smoke containing nicotine acts as a stimulant to the brain. Nicotine in the bloodstream acts to make the smoker feel calm. In fact, nicotine is a lethal poison, affecting the heart, blood vessels, and hormones. Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemical compounds. More than 60 of these are known or suspected to cause cancer. What is more, secondhand smoke can be harmful in many ways and it ruins thousands of non-smoking people, children's health. The US Surgeon General and the US Food and Drug Administration are among those who have examined the evidence and concluded that tobacco advertising does increase overall consumption. If we ban adverts on tobacco products, they will gradually lose their appeal, because they won't symbolize anything "cool", "smart" or "amazing". Tobacco products will become ordinary consumption goods and thus the number of young people who take up smoking in order to "be somebody" will decrease.

The tobacco industry kills more people in North America from Monday to Thursday of each week than the terrorists murdered in total on September 11, 2001. That sounds unrealistic, doesn’t it? Well, smoking is an epidemic that affects us all, whether you are a smoker or you aren’t. In order to stop this epidemic, we need to

Attention getter: According to Tobacco-Free Kids, “about 400,000 people die from their own smoking each year, and about 50,000 die from second-hand smoke annually. Smoking kills more people than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and