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.
It’s better than nothing. I haven’t read any studies about it but my assumption is that it encourages zero people to smoke and dissuades a non-zero number of people from smoking. Whether it by itself is enough is a different question but there is no harm in disseminating messages about the health harms of smoking.
It is true that widespread smoking is a symptom of deeper societal malaise and the political strength of the tobacco industry. Efforts concentrated at swaying individuals into making the choice to not smoke will be limited in effect. But reminders of the dangers of tobacco use are fine in my opinion even if they are not complete on their own.