They're going to try. Australia, already with tough restrictions on cigarette advertising in meatspace, has decided Teh Internets are making young'ns smoke. And censorship will fix that! Oh, my yes, it will. Riiiiiight.
Just how old are these vulnerable youngsters, such easy prey for the merchants of death, the demographic with the greatest proportion of smokers? A mere 24 to 29 years of age. You know, what most people throughout history and across the globe know as "adults." Yeah, they still do think they'll live forever at that age, but they outgrow it -- and, funny thing, the smokers start to quit as the realization dawns.
Most of the Western nations have gone from having a majority of smokers to a shrinking minority and it's getting down to a hard core who like the short-term effects* and either don't care about the long-term ones or are willing to accept the trade-off. Keeping them from seeing ads and putting Scary Pictures on cigarette packs isn't going to change their behavior, no matter how virtuous it makes Nanny feel.
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* Inhaled nicotine does wonderful things for my ability to concentrate, YMMV; I was also coughing up yeeech every morning and getting winded on a flight of stairs. So I quit, a long time ago. It wasn't easy. But I don't go around feeling superior because I quit or insisting everyone else ought to.
Which reminds me, I heard another one of those authoritarian, paternalistic, anti-business smoke-free workplace ads on the radio yesterday. Smoke-Free Indy or whatever the feeble-minded gits call themselves.
ReplyDeleteSeems like our local restauranteurs have enough to worry about in this Øbama economy without losing half their bar customers because of a smoking ban.
I may rant about this later.
I always hear these rumors about the lovely effects of nicotine. I must be one of the few people that is immune because it does absolutely nothing for me. I suppose that's a good thing since tobacco holds no sway, but I am really curious about what I'm missing.
ReplyDeleteIt's subtle, more easily noticed when it is gone.
ReplyDeleteIt really does give cognition a slight boost, which is one of those factoids they like to keep out of education.
ReplyDeleteI liked my first pack of cigarettes so much I never bought another.
word verificiation- nicuse. Oh, come on, that CAN'T be a coincidence...