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Smokers

Aspergers_Aspie

Well-Known Member
I don't smoke, my parents did, their generations it was more accepted and they didn't have the knowledge they have now about dangers of smoking, in the UK they eventually banned tobacco advertising, but what about previous generations? Some tobacco companies used to entice smokers to buy more cigarettes by having a shopping catalogue where smokers could exchange their coupons found in their cigarette packets, with items from the catalogue
 
In the past anything went when it came to advertising cigarettes. :rolleyes:


However back then even when the medical community knew it was hazardous to your health, there were still powerful politicians trying to silence this message as well as the corporate tobacco entities they represented.

And yet even today one can still buy such products. You just can't use them anywhere as in the past. Weird to think it wasn't until 1981 when the law started to regulate where one could smoke. Not what I'd call "progress" over a substance that can kill you and anyone around you while you use it. But then nations still have nuclear weapons as well. We humans are a crazed lot. :oops:
 
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I always found it bizarre how certain brands would advertise by depicting "super cool" animals that smoke all the time. Specifically, the dromedary, appearing to be living-it-up. I was just looking up old posters and billboard advertisements and laughing. They look so funny.
 
I always found it bizarre how certain brands would advertise by depicting "super cool" animals that smoke all the time. Specifically, the dromedary, appearing to be living-it-up. I was just looking up old posters and billboard advertisements and laughing. They look so funny.

Camel cigarettes. The worst, most pungent cigarettes. Probably due to blended Latakia Turkish tobacco.

Animation always appealed to the youngest tier of their target audience. Get the kiddies hooked on nicotine as early as you can to bolster that bottom line and keep the shareholders happy.
 
The attitude about smoking was very different when I was a young man. Almost everybody smoked. In Army basic training, when we got to take a break, The DI's would tell us to "smoke them if you got them" as they lit up a cigarette. Of course you had to "field strip" you butt when your done. Everybody had a foot locker by their bunk. What was in your foot locker and how it was arranged was very specific. One of the things in your foot locker was a pack of cigarettes, even if you did not smoke. In basic training we got old K-rations that had a 4 pack of cigarettes in with the food. I am sure that all of these things have changed by now.
 
I don't smoke, my parents did, their generations it was more accepted and they didn't have the knowledge they have now about dangers of smoking, in the UK they eventually banned tobacco advertising, but what about previous generations? Some tobacco companies used to entice smokers to buy more cigarettes by having a shopping catalogue where smokers could exchange their coupons found in their cigarette packets, with items from the catalogue

Lots of things originate with Edward Bernays, was the “Father of modern propaganda” (back in the 20s when propaganda didn’t have such a negative meaning).

He convinced women to start smoking by advertising them as “torches of freedom” and women complied.

Torches of Freedom - Wikipedia

Even Nazi propaganda minister was sort of a follower of Jewish Bernays and used his techniques to convince people that Jews are evil

Everything is really that people actually can be manipulated and there are techniques that work to manipulate people, which advertisers adopted.

My issue is sort of different in that I was a health fanatic, but people had been manipulated into believing crimes against me proved I was evil or whatever and smoking helped me feel connected to reality when I was having non stop panic attacks resulting from behind my being up against this, then I quit but started smoking again when the same issue happened again.
 
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It's strange, I get addicted to pretty much everything except cigarettes. I like smoking but I've never felt any compulsion to do it. :eek:
 
Everything, and I mean everything, is about social manipulations and complying with dominant social messengers and the sticks and carrots required to be rewarded and not punished by movements in power

Like there isn’t really much of a rational reason for the two world wars except groups in power forced the general populations to comply. A bunch of poor or middle class white people had no reason to go to wars and give their lives fighting against people who were more or less like them because they had some specific issue with other white Europeans except that the groups in power forced compliance.

Advertisers and powerful social advocacy groups have just turned these things into a science and manipulate people and force compliance and have found ways to ostracize and punish those who do not comply.

It’s not just about smoking, it’s about everything.
 
I smoked one cigarette once, when I was in college, to see what it was like.

I expected the experience I always saw on TV: The young man takes a drag and goes into a coughing fit, and all the older, experienced men laugh at him.

Instead, it was a very smooth and pleasant-tasting experience. I liked it. I realized that smokers don't know how bad their breath smells because it tastes good to them.

I also realized why smoking was so attractive and addictive. I figured it would be dangerous for me to try another, so I have never smoked a second cigarette.

For me, the experience isn't about whether smoking is good or bad (but it's bad, FYI ;)) - it's about how easily I could get addicted to one more thing.
 
I knew in the 60s that smoking was REALLY bad for you. So did anyone else who wasn't in complete denial. People considered it an acceptable risk for the pleasure they got. A bigger buzz than caffeine but not as much as amphetamine. And then you were genuinely addicted and the immediate pain of quitting was thought worse than possible lung disease decades down the road.

I remember my parents both smoked. My mother would get upset when I'd ask her to crack her window to let the smoke out of the car. She'd tell me I should open my own window. That just sucked the smoke past me on the way out. She also thought I was faking it when I said I had difficulty breathing.

Dad was a lot more mellow about it. Watching him roll a cigarette while steering a manual transmission car with his knees was interesting.

I had school mates who recognized that smoking was preventing them from living up to their athletic potential.
 
We are always learning what is good and bad for us, and bad medically

Years ago - not that long ago - asbestos was a common building material, we now know it's toxic and don't use it, people still die from long term effects of exposure to it, crews these days remove it with hazmat suits!

Smoking? Same sort of thing (caveat: I have never smoked ever), years ago tobacco advertising was everywhere, before my time really, but I have old magazines with that sort of advertising, and John Player's Special (a cigarette brand) had a close association with Lotus the car company and their racing, I've seen JPS versions of Lotus sports car from the 1970's

Now all that advertising is banned

I do think cigarette smoking is way down compared to 15 years ago, in general, it may never get to absolute zero... I know people who quit all other addiction to harder substances, but struggled to quit smoking
 
No, its just my observation.

Ah, no problem. I would disagree that they are linked. I think the rise in obesity is probably due to the types and amounts of foods we are eating, rather than a decrease in smoking. But the decrease in smoking has occurred over a similar time frame as the changes in our eating styles - pre-prepared, ultra-processed, high sugar, high fat, more meat, more dairy etc etc.
 
Nicotine is an appetite suppressant afaik.
Yes, sorry I didn't address that. I realise it is an appetite suppressant, but I don't believe that is anywhere near the main reason why obesity levels have been rising over past decades.
 

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