Anne Thompson

“Dear me. When you were eight, you begged mom to stop smoking. Four years later, you started.”

I have to admit I don’t watch much TV, but I do listen to the radio. In recent months, I have often heard emotionally moving ads about quitting smoking. Each one begins, “Dear me”. The “no one can make me quit but me” ad campaign provides a number and a website that can be accessed for more information about smoking cessation and how to contact someone that can help a person quit. The ads are sponsored by my state’s health department.

I did some research on the ads, I found that they originated with the Washington State Department of Health. At the website I found that the audio spots have accompanying video and even though I claimed I don’t watch a lot of TV, I did recognize at least one video commercial from the campaign that I had run across during my sporadic television viewing.

These ads feature real people who have written letters to themselves asking themselves why they don’t quit smoking. Understandably, some of the readers become emotional as they recount the ironies involved in their choices, the regrets they have, the guilt they feel. Many have had loved ones who have died from the effects of smoking. Some have young children and worry about the effects smoking has on them.

Some see themselves in their children: watching grownups smoke and eventually die. One woman, already in the first stage of emphysema (and sounding very much like a beloved personal friend of mine who has her own terrible smoking addiction), raggedly asks herself, “Am I not worth it?” Even as a non-smoker, I have to say that effectively tugs at my heartstrings.

I admire these people for being willing to try to help others by sharing their very personal struggles with their addiction. I applaud the efforts of the involved state health departments for marketing a program to help people improve lives and help people make better choices. Overly compelling advertising campaigns may be seen as blatantly appealing to the emotions of people listening. However, when dealing with very tough choices that affect peoples’ health and lives so immediately, I feel the ads provide a distinct public service designed to promote the general health of the population.

Website: http://www.quitline.com/dear_me/.

What do you think? Are the ads exploitative? Do they go too far?

Graphic Credit:
Animationfactory.com