Using Paparazzi Shots of Smoking Celebrities and Calling Them Idiots Is Cheap
September 2, 2014
By Ken Wheaton
With great power comes great responsibility. Spider-Man’s uncle said that once. And if it’s good enough for Spider-Man’s uncle, it’s good enough for the folks over at the American Legacy Foundation. In the latest iteration of its “Truth” campaign, the group switches gears from getting kids to stop smoking to getting celebrities to stop smoking — while blaming them for teen smoking and calling them unwitting dupes of Big Tobacco.
The group ran a couple of spots during the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards. The first spot features paparazzi photos of Orlando Bloom, Robert Pattinson, Rihanna, Chris Brown and a host of others, cigarettes hanging from their mouths and the words “UNPAID TOBACCO SPOKESPERSON” stamped over their faces. “They’re the new face of Big Tobacco. And they don’t even know it,” the ad continues.
I’m sure the kids watching all screamed, “Dude, sick burn!” in unison. Or maybe they wondered just who American Legacy was talking to here? The celebrities? Publishers? Photographers? The audience?
Who knows? The premise and execution are, as the kids say, a hot mess.
In the second ad, American Legacy says the first ad might have “pissed off” the lawyers of the celebrities — tee-hee, they’re so edgy. Then the smoking celebrities are shown again and called unpaid spokespeople again. Then American Legacy claims it’s not “against these people.” Huge fans, as it turns out! Then the ad repeats the notion that every time a smoking photo gets posted, Big Tobacco gets tons of free marketing. Therefore, don’t post smoking selfies, kids.
American Legacy is making no damn sense and they don’t even know it. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for celebrities, but these people aren’t posting or printing photos of themselves smoking. Rather, they’re having a private moment enjoying a perfectly legal (if harmful) activity out of sight of their fans. How would the folks at American Legacy like it if someone came along and snapped pics of them picking their noses or something?
American Legacy is trying to talk to teens (I think) about what’s really cool or lame.
Know what’s lame? Trashing a bunch of celebrities, then saying, “Nah, just kidding, bro. We’re good,” in the next spot. Such a Bieber move. At least have the courage to stand behind the shade you’re throwing. Even if it’s incoherent junior-high-level shade.
Watch the video: Truth – Unpaid Tobacco Spokesperson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTj4I9WUggw
Anti-smoking ads’ effects surprising, ‘truth’ campaign creates best results
10/29/07
Read?
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Full Study….
http://crx.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/34/4/407.pdf
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‘Truth’ campaign is anything but truthful
October 12, 2007
Jordan Rothman
When you were in middle school, you probably had some lame, pathetic program that tried to convince you not to smoke tobacco. Though these initiatives come in various different names, some school official or perhaps a police officer probably told you about the horrific and dire consequences of smoking cigarettes. They probably portrayed the tobacco companies in a negative light, illustrated their use of half-truths and propaganda, and demonstrated the evilness of these companies. As I look back on these programs, I realize that they were really horrible themselves. The anti-tobacco supporters are the ones using lies as they hyperbolize the effects of smoking. These advocates cause more harm as they inundate young minds with misleading information and disrupt the capitalist system. Though the political correct position seems to support these valiant efforts to curtail underage smoking, I’d like to relate that they’re not all good. Their initiatives are unhealthy, their tactics are propagandistic, and the tobacco industry isn’t all that bad to begin with.
The strategies employed by the anti-smoking advocates are both unethical and wrong. These campaigns do not provide the straight up facts, but rather cloud the debate in half-truths. The “Truth” campaign is by far the worst perpetrator of this offense. They run commercials that say that tobacco, for instance, is dangerous because it contains a certain amount of arsenic. But seriously, it’s not like you are ingesting the stuff, just smoking it harmlessly away. I also love how they pull on your heartstrings when they have someone whose father died of smoking go outside the tobacco lobby and ask “why do you make products that kill people?” That’s funny, why doesn’t that same person go outside a Ford factory and ask them why they create products that lead to so many fatalities, when automobile accidents is one of the leading causes of death in America. Rather than give the straight up facts abut the ridiculous cost of smoking, these liars would rather provide half-truths that skew the facts, use propaganda, and otherwise show blatantly unethical advertisements.
The tobacco companies themselves are not the evil corporations that everyone tries to make them out to be. They are just like any other ordinary firm that is trying to compete and make a profit in the global economy. They employ thousands of people, add to the economic activity of our country, and have a number of positive effects on the nation. Some say that they use misleading and unethical advertising techniques. This assertion is wholly false. Just like any other product, the tobacco companies use exaggerated commercials and other devices to sell their goods. These companies aren’t even allowed to put advertisements on television, while those against the industry are free to utilize the airwaves.
Some say that these companies will do everything in their power to not pay compensation when a family member dies of tobacco related illnesses. Of course they are trying to do this! Like every other cooptation in America, these companies are trying to avoid expenditures, and why should they pay out compensation in the first place. Everyone knows the risks of smoking, it’s listed on the damn package for god sakes. If someone is irrational enough to smoke for thirty years even though there exist sizable evidence that this is dangerous, then let them pay the consequences. Do manufacturers of car companies pay the victims of crashes when the vehicle was performing under normal conditions? It seems politically correct to bash these companies, and this attitude is just plain wrong. They have done nothing unethical, and the attention should be drawn on the advocates of anti-smoking initiatives rather than these corporations.
I am a track star (yeah right) and have only smoked about two cigars in my entire life. Still, I hate seeing the propaganda and half-truths reigning supreme over the smoking debate. The groups against smoking are the ones that employ unethical tactics and lies to get their message across. The smoking companies are just doing what any other company does, and are being restricted from utilizing the full benefits of the capitalist system. So next time you see one of those “truth” advertisements on television or badmouth the tobacco corporations, just think about the whole debate differently. The anti-tobacco people are the ones using smoke and mirrors to convince gullible people of the apparent evils of the tobacco corporations.
Attorneys General Hide Legacy Conflict of Interest in Presenting Data on Effectiveness of Truth Campaign
By Michael Siegel
The Attorneys General of 41 states last week sent a letter to the major Hollywood film studios requesting that they show anti-smoking commercials before any of their movies that depict smoking. Included with the letter was a DVD containing three anti-smoking ads for the studios to use. These ads are from the American Legacy Foundation’s “truth” anti-smoking campaign.
In attempting to document the effectiveness of these ads in reducing youth smoking rates, and thus provide a strong rationale for why the studios should show these ads, the Attorneys General cited research which they purported shows that the “truth” campaign substantially reduced rates of youth smoking in the United States:
“Legacy, created by the states’ 1998 tobacco litigation Master Settlement Agreement, is a national public health foundation devoted to prevention and cessation of tobacco use. According to peer-reviewed research, 22% of the overall decline in youth smoking during 2000 to 2002 is directly attributable to Legacy’s national smoking campaign, known as truth. The study found there were approximately 300,000 fewer youth smokers in 2002 as a result of the truth campaign.”
The Rest of the Story
I think the Attorneys General are presenting a premature and unsubstantiated claim that the “truth” campaign explains 22% of the decline in youth smoking between 2000 and 2002. I don’t for a second believe that the one study being cited, which didn’t even measure the exposure of a single youth to the “truth” campaign, can credibly be used to conclude that the campaign reduced youth smoking and to quantify the size of the effect. Especially when the research itself actually showed that the campaign was not effective.
But that’s not the rest of the story.
The rest of the story is that the Attorneys General are hiding an important piece of information that I think is essential to reveal in any credible presentation of the relevant facts: the study they refer to simply as being “peer-reviewed research,” was actually paid for, conducted by, and co-authored by the American Legacy Foundation. This represents a substantial and significant conflict of interest that affects the interpretation of the research findings and conclusions and which therefore must be disclosed, not hidden.
How likely do you think it is that the Legacy Foundation would author a study showing that its “truth” campaign was not effective? Knowing the way in which the Foundation has gone about its business, I find it difficult to believe that is even in the realm of possibility. So yes – there is a huge bias inherent in this research study and it most likely is substantial enough to affect the conduct, interpretation, and reporting of the research.
And in fact, I view this bias as being every bit as important as when we anti-smokers insist that tobacco industry funding of research or of authors of research papers be disclosed and argue that this conflict severely biases and discredits the research.
By failing to disclose this conflict of interest, I think the Attorneys General are misleading the studio owners and the public. They are making it sound like the research concluding that the “truth” campaign has substantially reduced youth smoking was some sort of independent, peer-reviewed research, when in fact it was not independent at all: it was conducted by, paid for, and authored by the American Legacy Foundation.
Why is it so important that this information be hidden from the public? When you start seeing continuing efforts to hide information like this, I think it’s time to suspect that there is some reason why it needs to be hidden.
And I think there is good reason why it does need to be hidden. This is not research which the Attorneys General nor Legacy apparently want to be subject to any scrutiny. Perhaps they realize that a study which finds no effect of the “truth” campaign at the highest levels of exposure does not bode well for supporting a conclusion that the campaign was effective. Perhaps they realize that if the “truth” comes out about the failure to disclose this conflict of interest, the bias inherent in the study, and the weak evidence upon which their sweeping conclusions are based, the wind will be sucked out of their sails.
Read
State Attorneys General, Tobacco Manufacturers and Public Health Leaders Convene to Discuss Youth Smoking
Participants in this conference were parties to the Master Settlement
Agreement (MSA) between 46 state attorneys general and the major tobacco
companies. This is the first joint meeting of the AGs, industry and public
health advocates since a little-known sunset clause in the MSA took effect.
This clause states that if — after an initial five-year period — the market
share of the tobacco companies participating in the MSA drops below
99.05 percent, funding to the MSA’s public education fund would cease.
Dr. Steve Schroeder is the American Legacy Foundation’s Board Chair and Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, where he also heads the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center. “The bulk of the funding for the American Legacy Foundation expired after five years, because the funds depended on the four settling tobacco companies maintaining a share of the domestic cigarette market of at least 99.05 percent. In retrospect, that percentage was probably based on erroneous projections,” he said.
“In April of last year, the American Legacy Foundation received what we believe is our last major payment pursuant to the MSA,” said foundation President and CEO Dr. Cheryl Healton. “We are now on a financial glide path that could lead to the end of the only effective national media campaign aimed at preventing youth from smoking, the truth(R) campaign. This is extremely unfortunate since, in a typical year, the tobacco industry earns more than a billion dollars annually on the sale of its cigarettes to 8th to 12th graders in the U.S. alone.”
This loss of funding comes at a time when youth smoking rates have declined, in part because of the American Legacy Foundation’s truth(R) campaign. Smoking rates among high school students declined about 18 percent between 2000 and 2002 (the most recent year for which data has been collected). However, 4,000 young people a day smoke cigarettes for the first time, 2,000 will become regular smokers and one third of them will die of a tobacco related illness.
William Sorrell, attorney general of Vermont, said the nation’s attorneys general have been working to save the truth(R) campaign, given its proven successes in reaching youth who typically would be open to starting smoking.
“The industry publicly claims to support youth tobacco prevention programs,” Sorrell said. “Well, here’s its opportunity to step up by continuing to fund truth(R). Forget about the MSA sunset provision.”
The American Legacy Foundation(R), an organization borne of the MSA, is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address health effects of tobacco use through grants, technical assistance and training, youth activism, strategic partnerships, counter-marketing and grass roots marketing campaigns, public relations and outreach to populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco. Legacy’s national programs include Circle of FriendsTM, Great Start, a Priority Populations Initiative, Streetheory.org and truth(R). The foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states and the tobacco industry.
