Annoying TV Advertising: From "Truth" to Celebrity Ads

How annoying are the "Truth" ads? Well, let me see: Yes, they're pretty damn annoying. Although I completely agree with the messages the ads contain, it's just the presentation that I find so annoying. The mass rally ending in everyone dropping dead is just painfully annoying. Although the people who produce these ads, I'm sure, have their hearts in the right place, I cannot help but cringe at the sight of hundreds of young people carrying placards with big, bold letters on them declaring the most obvious of statements. Just the sight of young people in mass and with courageous defiance (ugh) showing up at some supposed big Tobacco headquarters to show just how many people die each year or week or whatever from tobacco-related diseases gets on my last nerve.

The fact that cigarettes cause lung cancer, deformity to children and cause untold harm to smokers and smokees (that would be me and you the 'non-smoker') has been common knowledge for at least 30 years now, if not longer. I should think the price alone would put people off smoking and sales have certainly dwindled from where they once were. As much as I detest sitting on a bench outside and having someone come over and start smoking around me I think I would be even more annoyed to have a bunch of young people carrying slogan-filled placards promoting a healthy ideal that's been common knowledge for over 30 years.

Do the messages work? I have no idea. I acknowledge that the young people of today are as intelligent or not as the silly old farts of yesteryear and still need constant reminding that inhaling smoke is not a healthy ideal. Far more effective I think are some of the latest advertisements showing people experiencing real medical consequences to their smoking habits. In quite graphic detail there's an Australian Ad that's being used showing a guy whose leg has turned gangrenous and exactly what's going to happen as a consequence.

Other annoying ad's are any, 'It's 10.p.m, do you know where you're children are?' style ad's or 'The More you know!' ads which frequently feature famous faces calmly spouting mind-bogglingly obvious social commentary. 'Don't leave your infant naked on the highway - the more you know!' or 'Don't pee on electrical outlets - the more you know!' or Tom Hanks reminding you that it's 10 p.m. and whilst giving you the hint of a scolding look asks you 'do you know where you're children are?'. Well, I don't have any kids but I am glad you reminded me Tom. Why we are supposed to take any more notice of these 'oh so together' elite of Hollywood, these vacuous, overpaid, Betty-Ford Clinic recoveries, these pimped up hair straightened, plastic faced, buttock clenchingly assanign personages, who's earnest soliloquies would make Madame Teresa (were she still alive) vomit is quite beyond me .