A few hours ago I took a survey asking me to look at some anti‐tobacco warnings and then estimating how many tobacco smokers vs. non‐smokers will suffer the risks.
I don’t think that grown‐ups take up smoking simply because they’re unaware of just how awful it is for them. I think that they usually turn to smoking because it’s a crude coping mechanism and they don’t love living. Think about it: if life sucks anyway, how much difference would avoiding an unhealthy habit like smoking make?
Reducing tobacco consumption is a fine goal, but anti‐tobacco groups (or at least the ones that I’ve seen) go about it completely the wrong way. I think that raising living standards, or maybe even just messages with more positivity and empathy, would have a more substantial effect than giant warnings and photos of hideously deformed organs.
Is smoking still seen as cool by teenagers and younger people? The only benefit I could see to the in your face commercials that hype up the health risks with smoking is to counter that social perception that smoking is cool, but I’m not sure that they’re still considered cool by a lot of people.
Vaping was seen in Poland as cool for few years, but thankfully lately i seen less people producing big smoke clouds straight in my face. Cigarettes are declining steadily, way less 20-30 year old people here smokes than 40+
In the US my impression is it’s successfully taboo, but I’m sure some people still do it because of that or something else. I think vaping is considered much “cooler” at this point.