What's the point with 2 minutes of "say no to smoking" ads?

Yes, what's the point with 2 minutes of "say no to smoking" ads followed by 2.5 hours of glamorizing smoking?


You see this happening in almost every language movie, before the movie starts there is an ad for about 2 minutes which talks about all the bad effects of smoking and that it's injurious to health and so on. But after that, once the movie starts, you see the Hero stylishly smoking, and he is easily able to beat-up all the bad guys,  one or more girls fall for him, and he lives an amazing life. Now, why the hell would anyone not copy the Hero and start smoking instead of saying "no to smoking"?  Are any of the governments really serious about this smoking related problems or is the 2 minutes ad just a tick in a box ? Note - According to WHO (World Health Organization) around 5 Million people die because of Smoking.

You may argue that now when someone smokes in the movie, there are one or two lines written that says smoking is injurious to health.  I really wonder, will a small text at that point have any sort of impact when people are focused on the bigger visuals? Pictures are worth a thousand words, we all know that from ages. When people are focused on that big screen with audio, what good does that small little text in the corner do? In any case, a large population doesn't know to read, what's the point of that text? Who is fooling whom here? Are governments fooling people? Or are people fooling themselves?

To all the film makers, if you have any sense of responsibility towards society, please stop glamorizing smoking in the movies. Movies have a big, a very big impact on people, for some section of people more impact than education, some cases more impact than family, friends, teachers etc have on them. Show that a Hero is unable to beat-up a bad guy because he smoked and lost his strength. Show that a Hero lost the girl he loved because he was addicted to smoking. Show that a Hero had oral cancer because of smoking. Show that a Hero lost a boxing or running competition because of smoking. Show that smoking is a weakness of the Hero and not his strength, which in fact is a weakness, it's the weak minds that can't get out of the smoking addiction, strong minds can easily come of smoking addiction. Show that a Hero lost his money in smoking. Show that a Hero lost his respect because he was addicted to smoking. People will at least think about quitting smoking.

To governments : If you are really serious about this issue, don't permit movies that glamorizes smoking. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

O nanna gelaya - Kannada poem

Teacher's Day - A Poem

How do supermarkets capture feedback?

Eyes, Mouth and Nose - A short story for kids