Ad Changing Minds?
Studies have shown teenager are more likely to smoke if an adult figure in their live smokes, like their mother, father, grandparent, etc… I don’t think an ad is going to make a difference in the way a teenager see smoking.
I was a teen smoker, all my friends smoke but a few. The few that didn’t smoke had parents that didn’t smoke. I feel that teenager whom have parent or an adult in their house hold that smoke are way more likely to smoke, due to the fact that they have a way to get cigarettes. I don’t smoke today, but when I was a teenager an ad would have never made in effect on the way I seen smoking.
Anti-smoking campaigns, like Phillip Morris’s prevention ad tells youth to “Think. Don’t Smoke.” I see this ad to be positive and have nothing but the best of attention. Being an effective ad is a whole another issues. Most teen, speaking only for my friends, older and young brothers and myself, an ad would have never made impacted on our lives. Teenagers think that they know everything and don’t want to listen to what anyone else as to say.
It’s really sad, to say that teenagers have a “whatever approach,” but most teens do. I think if they are thinking about smoking then they are going to try it. Teenager want to live their lives and trying things like smoking or drinking, which is everywhere in high school those days. The teenagers that don’t follow others are the ones who have parents that don’t do those things.
There are many anti-smoking ads those days that are pay for by the cigarette companies, may have an effect on the way that a teenager sees smoking. I just know how my friends and I thought when we were freshman in high school; we want to be “cool” and belonged to a “group.” I never fit in to a group, I had a few close friends and never liked school, so it meant for me to skip a lot and while skipping I started smoking.
So for me, teenagers need to have positive friends and positive role moles to help them develop who they want to be. I truly feel that teenager don’t care about an ad, most of the time they don’t care a homework or school at all. High school can be one of the hardest times in a person live and most of teenagers stop caring about reading or school work. I feel that teenagers just want to be a “cool kid” and will do anything to fit in with a group. It’s a sad reality to think that most teenagers aren’t going to see this ad as positive or see this ad as having an good side, mostly just seen as WHATEVER!
I can tell you that when I was a teen, I never would have paid attention to the ads on TV. I never watched much television but when I did, I paid little to no attention to advertisements on TV. I have always hated them, and even to this day, I find it hard to watch a whole show unless it is on TiVo, because at least on TiVo I can fast forward through commercials and get to what I want to watch, my show.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teen, I never took any of the ads on TV seriously. The smoking ads, drug ads, or anything of the like I only found as a cheesy attempt to get me to head in the right direction, but in the end, what good can an ad really do? You can’t ask an ad questions, you can’t talk to it about your daily life and why it is so difficult for you to wake up in the morning. You only see a cheesy few seconds of someone whose life seems so messed up that you realize that you never want to be in those shoes.
But what do these ads actually do? They make something look bad, usually by looking at an extreme circumstance; they don’t show the steps that led here, just the end result. This makes many teens think that they can still do the thing being portrayed, as they will never let it get as bad as seen on TV. Guess what? A year later they are in that exact same spot that the TV was portraying wondering how they got there. It’s depressing, but unfortunately true.
I agree with your comments that having positive role models in a teens life can make a difference in the choices they make. I also agree that having parents that smoke or don’t smoke can also make a difference. I know when I was growing up my parents smoked and it was easy to sneak a couple of cigarettes here and there. It’s also easier to cover up smoking when there is already the smell of smoke in the home or in the car.
ReplyDeleteCigarettes were advertised when I was growing up and I think it did influence people. You would see the ads in magazines or on billboards and of course it was portrayed as the cool thing to do or the manly thing to do with the “Marlboro Man” sitting on his horse getting ready to round-up the herd! Glamorous movie stars would be shown in the old movies smoking and blowing their smoke out in a seductive way and it did influence more young ladies to smoke by making them think they would look older or sexy.
Peer pressure is probably the biggest contributing factor for a teen deciding to smoke or not though. It’s hard for a teen to take a stand and be different if “everyone else is doing it”. The role models they choose either in the entertainment industry or people they know personally also affect their viewpoint of behavior such as smoking.
I think your assessment of teens wanting to be cool and the effects of peer pressure are correct.
ReplyDeleteHowever, even though it certainly helps to have parents or other respected role models, that isn't necessarily a guarantee of behavior. It comes down to choices, really.
I found out my youngest was doing some smoking with his friends when he was laying in the hospital after a car wreck. In answering the doctors questions honestly about his health habits, he let it be known he had been smoking. I am a parent who does not smoke or drink and has very strong opinions on the subject. In homeschooling my kids, I stressed the health dangers of smoking, and I never wasted a true life example, like when my sons' grandpa got mouth cancer from smoking for 50 years.
But when you're young, you kind of think you are invincible, so some risky behavior comes with the territory. Some choices don't seem life-changing, and you get by with them without too much damage. Like my hitchhiking from Michigan to Kentucky or sleeping in a park in Chicago! Insert "stupid" here! But sometimes we get the consequences for choosing poorly.
As you can imagine, I had a serious talk about smoking with my son, especially after they found something in his lung. But whether it's role models, effective ads, or personal decision, we all get to choose what we do with our lives. Isn't there a movie line from Indiana Jones: "Choose wisely."