Jul 19, 2006

It Kills...So What?

Does advertising always have a positive impact on us? Most of the cases will be YES. The advertisements will linger in consumers' mind for whatever reasons, setting the mind to look for the respective products & services later. So, does that mean the ads always talk about the strengths of the product? Once again, most probably yes but...

Let us take Cigarettes for instance. Does it really matter that we need to put on commercials for these products? Even then, do people worry about the statutory warning - 'Cigarette Smoking is Injurious to Health'! It sure is saying the weakness of the product but who cares. People got so much used to smoking pleasure that they don't even worry about their health anymore!

Tobacco industry sure is big and so, curbing it as a whole from the market is next to impossible. But that doesn't mean, their usage need not be checked & kept under control. The Health Ministry in India has put forward another effort to reduce smoking - Made another warning to be mandatory for all the tobacco products - Tobacco Kills, Smoking Kills. Along with it, the packages may contain some signs like bones & skeleton representing the ill-effects of tobacco consumption. Once again, is this going to affect the market? Probably, a negligible percentage because no one cares...

Some things like this & alcohol consumtion are to be digested as daily facts of life because, they ain't simply walking out of our lives. Are they?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is in the Moral responsibility of the Govt. to do what they can to let people know and hats off to the Indian Govt. for doing all this. Laws like you cannot smoke in public places , is good for everyone. But, quitting smoking is in the hands of the people. "Thirudanai parthu thiruntha vittal, thiruttai olikka mudiyaathu"

Jagan M Narayanan said...

Well said. True, true...
But, some rules are supposed to be more strict. Like in the case of Singapore, no gums are to be used.