Stealth Cigarette Commercial: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"These days the government won't even allow cigarette manufacturers to advertise on television. Instead all you see are those public health commercials in which smug ten-year-old girls order you not to smoke, to the point where you want to rush right out and inhale a entire pack of unfiltered Camels just for spite."''|'''[[Dave Barry]]''', Dave Barry's Bad Habits}}
Since the early 1970s, the law has prohibited tobacco products from being advertised on television in the United States. The tobacco companies didn't fight this, since they knew if they went to Congress, there was a good chance they'd lose their [https://web.archive.org/web/20131111051133/http://www.badvertising.org/ print ads] as well.
This all changed as the result of a class-action lawsuit against Phillip Morris, which now calls itself Altria. As part of their settlement, the tobacco companies agreed to fund anti-smoking [[Public Service Announcement|public service announcements]].
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{{examples}}
* ''[[Thank You for Smoking]]'' had the tobacco lobby produce an "anti teen smoking ad" that basically consisted of a boy talking to his father about how he can't wait to turn 18 so he can smoke just like his dear old dad.▼
** Also in the movie were print ads that said "Everything your parents told you about smoking is right." The ad's maker pointed out that, in addition to being extremely softball, the last words of the ad are "smoking is right."▼
== Music ==
* A [[Capitol Steps]] sketch has a "smokesman" from Philip Morris report that his company, in the wake of the tobacco settlement, has decided to lead the effort to teach kids about the hazards of smoking by way of a fun new collectible card game called "[[Pokémon|Smokemon]]," in which a "three-pack-a-day hardcore nicotine freak such as Smoke-at-you" can be evolved from a mere casual smoker. He then adds, "I'll tell you, kids: don't smoke cigarettes, okay - [[Smoking Is Cool|unless you want to look really, really cool!]]"▼
== Radio ==
* Remember a radio PSA in the early 2000s that mocked this, by having a tobacco spokesperson talking about their future anti-teen-smoking efforts. He talks about their new anti-smoking mascot Avery the Anti-Smoking Aardvark, who wears a Hawaiian shirt with sunglasses, and spouts the catchphrase "Smoking is Totally Un-Tubular, Dude!". The tobacco spokesperson goes on to say that they've had this catchphrase emblazoned on a million rainbow-striped lucky
== Video Games ==
* Parodied on the install screen of ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]''. We see a video of Snake gruffly chaining cigarette after cigarette, occasionally playing with the smoke a little, while text comes up on screen talking about how cigarettes damage your health and the health of others around you, and how you should ''never'' start.▼
** Whenever you contact the CODEC support in earlier games while smoking, they'll give you a list of reasons why he should quit (Naomi's lung cancer speech from the first one comes to mind), and Snake retorts along the lines of "yeah, but smoking feels nice". In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'', Snake's reason for not quitting smoking is the far less appealing "I'm going to die young anyway, so why bother?", but Raiden is apparently an ex-smoker, and when his girlfriend begs him not to take up smoking again because of how hard it was to quit, he says the best way of avoiding that is to carry on smoking. Even in gameplay terms, the cigarettes sap your health and the item menu is plastered with health warnings, but help you get through lasers, restore psyche, let you see in the dark, and make Snake look ''really'' cool.▼
* [[Bungie|Bungie Software]] parodied this in some of their magazine advertisements in [[The Nineties]], saying "Unlike tobacco companies, we're more than happy to tell you how addictive our products are."▼
== Web Comics ==
* Invoked in ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' with this http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=191▼
== Web Original ==
* Recently,{{when}} ''[[The Onion]]'' parodied this trope with [https://web.archive.org/web/20100317213953/http://www.theonion.com/content/video/new_anti_smoking_ads_warn_teens this.]▼
* Viva Variety Cigarettes! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSzCyZhFPqo "Smoking's bad. We're bad."]▼
== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "Lisa the Beauty Queen", Laramie Cigarettes sponsor the Little Miss Springfield Pageant.▼
{{quote|'''Father''': Wow, president of Laramie Cigarettes, Jack Larson!▼
'''Larson''': This year, Laramie is sponsoring the Little Miss Springfield Pageant. You see, government regulations prohibit us from advertising on TV. [takes a puff on a cigarette and holds up the box] Ah, that sweet Carolina smoke! But, they can't prohibit us from holding a beauty pageant for little girls aged 7 to 9.▼
'''Girl''': [as pageant winner] What a feeling! I'm as happy as a smoker taking that first puff in the morning! }}▼
* The "Butt Out" episode of ''[[South Park]]'' starts with the boys watching a stage improv group at their school who are trying to deliver an anti-smoking message. Their performance is so annoying that when they announce "But if you ''don't'' smoke, you could be ''just like us!''" the kids run out behind the school immediately afterward and start chain-smoking cigarettes as if their lives depend on it.▼
* On ''[[Clone High]]'', the Raisin Council invokes this trope by having Johnny Hardcore (Jack Black as an [[Ink Suit Actor]]) tell kids NOT to smoke raisins, or else they will become raisin-addicted cool rock stars like himself. Then they provide The Pusher to sell them raisins. The logical conclusion, of course, is a [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?]] anvilicious parody of [[Drugs Are Bad]] episodes.▼
== Real Life ==
* Stealth PSA motto: "Tobacco is wacko -- if you're a teen." Subtext: "Smoking separates the adults from the mere teenagers."
** This is especially bad, because teenagers spend so much effort trying to be perceived as adults - that's the whole ''point'' of many of them taking up smoking!
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'''VO Guy:''' Why'd you quit?
'''Teen:''' I decided I didn't need all that. }}
**
*** Or "Be an uncool loser: don't smoke."
*** Or "[[Sarcasm Mode|Yeah, who wants to be cool anyway?]]"
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** But [[And Now You Know|now you do!]]
* The most recent set of anti-smoking PSAs involve a brief (and rather quiet) mention of some evil facet of the tobacco company, followed by an elaborate song and dance about how they must have been mistaken. At the end of the song, they very quickly realize that their justification makes no sense. The part of the commercial that inevitably stays with you is the big song and dance that tobacco companies love you. Note also that the last bit happens so quickly at the very end that it's often cut off by local stations trying to return to the show on time.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100227060327/http://info.france2.fr/france/la-campagne-anti-tabac-controversee-suspendue-61351302.html This] recent French anti-smoking print ad's message was basically "Teen smoking is like whoring yourself out to a person of authority." There were numerous problems with it: apart from the fact that if you listen to another authority, in this case the campaign, [[Disobey This Message|you're not really your own person either]], it was such a sheer exaggeration that it was dismissed by adults as shocking and by teens as preposterous; also, a substantial number of them replied that, [[Sex Is Evil|even if it looks bad]], they [[Sex Is Evil and I Am Horny|might like to blow some guy]], even some [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] in a suit.
** Also, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSWfyx7pgfk one French TV commercial] showed some evil company's Big Bads being assembled to find a way to eliminate tons of toxic wastes, and ending up creating the idea of cigarettes ("People are ready to pay to swallow this crap"); while it is an intriguing idea for a story, the acting was so bad that it looked like a parody, and gave points to the Smokers Are Cooler team instead.
* [[John Waters]] filmed a pre-movie spot for an art house theater where he tells the patrons that there is no smoking allowed in the theater... [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnpofBtijF8 while smoking a cigarette] and asking the audience if they wished they had one. Then he [[Lampshade Hanging|tells them to smoke anyway]], since it gives the ushers something to do.
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* Prohibition. During the 1920's, when alcohol was outlawed in the US, some wineries would sell grape juice in wine bottles, and if you peeled off the label it had instructions on the back that basically said "don't follow these instructions or this grape juice will turn into wine".
** According to some historians, the makers of Vine-Glo (a grape juice concentrate sold during Prohibition) sent demonstrators out to stores to show how easy it was to convert the block into refreshing and legal grape juice. Those demonstrators ''also'' showed exactly what you should not do, lest your grape juice "accidentally" turn into wine.
▲* In [[The Simpsons]] episode "Lisa the Beauty Queen", Laramie Cigarettes sponsor the Little Miss Springfield Pageant.
▲{{quote|'''Father''': Wow, president of Laramie Cigarettes, Jack Larson!
▲'''Larson''': This year, Laramie is sponsoring the Little Miss Springfield Pageant. You see, government regulations prohibit us from advertising on TV. [takes a puff on a cigarette and holds up the box] Ah, that sweet Carolina smoke! But, they can't prohibit us from holding a beauty pageant for little girls aged 7 to 9.
▲'''Girl''': [as pageant winner] What a feeling! I'm as happy as a smoker taking that first puff in the morning! }}
▲* The "Butt Out" episode of ''[[South Park]]'' starts with the boys watching a stage improv group at their school who are trying to deliver an anti-smoking message. Their performance is so annoying that when they announce "But if you ''don't'' smoke, you could be ''just like us!''" the kids run out behind the school immediately afterward and start chain-smoking cigarettes as if their lives depend on it.
▲* Recently, [[The Onion]] parodied this trope with [https://web.archive.org/web/20100317213953/http://www.theonion.com/content/video/new_anti_smoking_ads_warn_teens this.]
▲* A Capitol Steps sketch has a "smokesman" from Philip Morris report that his company, in the wake of the tobacco settlement, has decided to lead the effort to teach kids about the hazards of smoking by way of a fun new collectible card game called "[[Pokémon|Smokemon]]," in which a "three-pack-a-day hardcore nicotine freak such as Smoke-at-you" can be evolved from a mere casual smoker. He then adds, "I'll tell you, kids: don't smoke cigarettes, okay - [[Smoking Is Cool|unless you want to look really, really cool!]]"
▲* Viva Variety Cigarettes! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSzCyZhFPqo "Smoking's bad. We're bad."]
▲* Parodied on the install screen of ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]''. We see a video of Snake gruffly chaining cigarette after cigarette, occasionally playing with the smoke a little, while text comes up on screen talking about how cigarettes damage your health and the health of others around you, and how you should ''never'' start.
▲** Whenever you contact the CODEC support in earlier games while smoking, they'll give you a list of reasons why he should quit (Naomi's lung cancer speech from the first one comes to mind), and Snake retorts along the lines of "yeah, but smoking feels nice". In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'', Snake's reason for not quitting smoking is the far less appealing "I'm going to die young anyway, so why bother?", but Raiden is apparently an ex-smoker, and when his girlfriend begs him not to take up smoking again because of how hard it was to quit, he says the best way of avoiding that is to carry on smoking. Even in gameplay terms, the cigarettes sap your health and the item menu is plastered with health warnings, but help you get through lasers, restore psyche, let you see in the dark, and make Snake look ''really'' cool.
▲* Remember a radio PSA in the early 2000s that mocked this, by having a tobacco spokesperson talking about their future anti-teen-smoking efforts. He talks about their new anti-smoking mascot Avery the Anti-Smoking Aardvark, who wears a Hawaiian shirt with sunglasses, and spouts the catchphrase "Smoking is Totally Un-Tubular, Dude!". The tobacco spokesperson goes on to say that they've had this catchphrase emblazoned on a million rainbow-striped lucky rabbits feet, which they plan to distribute to junior high students at their Totally Tubular Teen Talk motivational seminars, where Artie will "rap" with the kids about how "Smoking makes you a silly stupid smelly-head!"
▲* On [[Clone High]], the Raisin Council invokes this trope by having Johnny Hardcore (Jack Black as an [[Ink Suit Actor]]) tell kids NOT to smoke raisins, or else they will become raisin-addicted cool rock stars like himself. Then they provide The Pusher to sell them raisins. The logical conclusion, of course, is a [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?]] anvilicious parody of [[Drugs Are Bad]] episodes.
▲* Invoked in [[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]] with this http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=191
▲* [[Thank You for Smoking]] had the tobacco lobby produce an "anti teen smoking ad" that basically consisted of a boy talking to his father about how he can't wait to turn 18 so he can smoke just like his dear old dad.
▲** Also in the movie were print ads that said "Everything your parents told you about smoking is right." The ad's maker pointed out that, in addition to being extremely softball, the last words of the ad are "smoking is right."
▲* [[Family Guy|"Are you smoking yet?"]]
▲* [[Bungie|Bungie Software]] parodied this in some of their magazine advertisements in [[The Nineties]], saying "Unlike tobacco companies, we're more than happy to tell you how addictive our products are."
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Advertising Tropes]]
[[Category:The Smoking Section]]
▲[[Category:Advertising Tropes]]
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