Tuesday, June 30, 2009

You can't handle the truth.


There was a lawsuit several years ago about a woman who sued a company because she burnt herself on coffee. That company now has a lid on their coffee that says "caution:hot". It should read "caution:hot.duh".
Everywhere we go there are warnings. I find that the more warnings we are given, the easier they are to ignore. Humans have become numb to the text that is right in front of them...I cannot tell you how many emails I will send out, and the response I get is a question that was already answered in the initial email. In bold.
So now this Truth campaign comes along about the dangers of cigarette smoking. Right off the bat I know the dangers, cancer being number one. I don't need to know anything else because cancer is pretty awful.
Here's how I feel: if cancer isn't enough to get you to not smoke, then no amount of campaigning will be. Not that it isn't "good for them" for trying but honestly. It's cancer. Cancer is bad. We have charities to put money towards wiping out cancer. Everyone knows that they don't want cancer, yet plenty of people still smoke.
What is the purpose of trying to get these people not to smoke? They know the dangers. They know that they could die but they light up that cigarette anyway. Telling them that their jaw could fall apart or that their lungs could have tar in them, what's the point? If cancer doesn't scare them nothing will.
Why doesn't cancer scare them? It's the mentality of "that won't happen to me." So if they are that adament on that not happening to them, then I doubt they think their children will be affected or their teeth will rot out, etc. After all, they can't get cancer from smoking cancer sticks, so that means they are immune from everything else.
I will say this, I am not a smoker. I smoke cigars not cigarettes and I've never touched pot or any other drug for that matter. But yes, I know that cigars are bad for you. I know I could get mouth cancer and I know that is a risk that I take.
There is a surgeon's general warning on every pack of cigarettes that no one reads anymore. They know the risks, and they ignore them.
So for the life of me, I can't understand the campaign. I am all for educating people, but when people are already educated, it's time to stop.


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