Pretty Stupid, Right?

If you don't live in the province of Ontario you probably haven't seen the new stupid.ca anti-smoking ads. I'd link directly to the new one but the whole site is in flash so it's not particularly link friendly. You can see it by going to the "This is Stupid" section of the site and clicking on 'Antlers." Basically the ad shows a teen walking around in the woods in green and brown clothing while wearing a helmet with antlers strapped to it and they're doing this during hunting season. Pretty dumb thing to do, right? Well according to the ad only two people per year die of hunting accidents in Ontario while smoking claims the lives of 16,000.

And that's how the ads go. I'm not really sure who runs the campaign and the website doesn't go out of its way to give any names or contact information but it is supported by the Government of Ontario. My question is this- Who are they targeting? Every smoker I know is well aware of the dangers and health risks of smoking and they still don't quit so how is throwing more stats and firgures at them supposed to make a difference? My guess is that the real target audience isn't smokers non-smokers.Effective anti-smoking campaigns don't try to dissaude smokers from lighting up, they just use brute force to make it next to impossible for smokers to actually smoke. The stupid.ca probably won't help anyone quit but it'll give plenty more ammo to those who would lobby to make smoking in public illegal and my bet is those are exactly the type of people stupid.ca is targeting. They aren't trying to persuade smokers. They're reinforcing anti-smokers.

Comments

[Salty Bob]

I would have to agree with Heather. The impression I get from the ads are more to disuade youths from starting or being peer pressured into starting up smoking. I've seen other anti-smoking ad campaigns on the bus as well and they seem to be targetting the kids too.

[heather]

My guess is the ads are aimed to prevent youth from starting smoking... more so then to smokers themselves.

[Rich]

It seems to me that they're really trying to corner the market on crazed hyperbole ala the "drug war" commercials of a few years ago... remember them? The close-up scary shots of kids faces as they talked about funding international terrorism through the purchase of pot, running over kids on curbs who were just trying to buy ice cream. One step up from Reefer madness hysteria. All it does is insult the intelligence of people (smoking and non-smoking alike). So I guess the name for the campaign is apt.