so every couple months the anti-smoking lobby comes up with a couple horrible disgusting new commercials that i cannot un-see and i’m just sick of it.

is there some kind of “non-smoker block” that i can have put on my television, like a parental control so that i as a lifelong non-smoker don’t have to be subjected to these horrible visuals?

i almost threw up my corn chex the other night when i was accosted by the image of a foot being operated on because of gangrene apparently due to smoking.

i get that they are trying to educate and i guess i’m all for everyone having as much knowledge as possible, but i don’t smoke, never have, and never plan to, so do i really have to see this stuff too?

also, and i’m likely to get flak for this, but just leave people alone.  i don’t understand the anti-smoking lobby…much like i don’t understand most of these things.  i know smokers, i know non-smokers, and i know plenty of smokers that are always on a quest to become non-smokers and i don’t think one of these disgusting commercials has helped any of these people.  i don’t think as a smoker you wake up every day and go “Yes!  Today I will smoke and it will be awesome and good for me!”, no you just do your best every day like the rest of us.  we all have devils i think and they just come in different shapes and sizes, for some people that devil is smoking.  i’m not trying to justify it and it puts your health at risk obviously, but i think we can all look inward and find some shit about ourselves that is not healthy that we feel compelled to do.  having a lobby that spends god knows how much money trying to stop you from doing something that you probably wish you weren’t doing in the first place, i don’t know, it just feels stupid.  and actually kind of mean.

i can get behind the idea of putting this information out there for kids who are impressionable and might be wooed by the mystique of starting to smoke, and certainly the idea of making sure that the information is available and the facts generally known, but for people who are already immeshed smoking as a habit, i guess i feel like if they are already trying to stop, then being shown horrible images is unlikely to somehow miraculously help them stop.  so why do we all have to suffer (and lose our lunch) if it’s not even helping? 

i would certainly open this discussion to anyone that has any personal experience with this – especially if these horrible commercials have helped you stop smoking – because then at least i could feel okay about not being able to eat my corn chex – because someone is being helped.  thoughts?

there is no image or link in this post because i don’t want that horrible nightmare inducing stuff on my blog.  but if you wish to find any of this stuff just google it, or check out commercials on you tube.