« CBC Employees Podcasting | Main | Scary Viral »
September 2, 2005
Tobacco advertising - I'm not sure who's worse . . .
the tobacco companies or the pharmaceutical companies.
They both want to sell you nicotone and they both profit off of people's addictions . . .
Yes, this is one man's opinion, and not an expert one at this, but this really bothers me.
I read today that Pfizer, with the help of JWT, are launching another campaign in Canada to promote their Nicorette product.
Here's the problem I have with using Nicorette or any other like product to quit smoking. It's a fundamentally flawed idea. Cigarette smokers are addicted to nicotine, not cigarettes. And those who quit are the ones who break their addiction to nicotine.
I don't see anyone chewing cocaine gum or heroin gum to quit those addictions. Why is this treated any different? The whole idea of easing off of any addictive drug but substituting one form for another is simply not going to work. It's a misguided notion that preys on the the mind of nicotine addicts.
"Maybe rather than quitting all at once, I can ease off of it . . . "
Nice thought. Not reality.
Pzizer had sales of $1.78 billion in 2004 on it's consumer products. I couldn't find a product-level breakdown in their annual report but Nicorette would make up part of that figure. That's not chump change.
Look at this video clip on the Nicorette site - the falsehood is evident right in their ads.
I understand the latest ad by JWT represents the nicotine addiction as a green creature, but still positions Nicoderm as the way to make it go away.
http://nicorette.quit.com/files/New_Guy_30.wmv
Ya, the guy felt better but what did Nicorette do to help this guy break his addiction?
Nothing.
It perpetuated it and but made him think he was making progress on the path to recovery. He's not. He just took another hit of the drug - but just through a different delivery mechanism.
Give them all a month and they'll all be standing out there having a cigarette break.
If you want to break the addiction, you have to face it and break it.
Buddy should find some new folks to hang out with while he's dealing with it and keep away from the smokes and the damn gum.
In my opinion, the tobacco companies and Pfizer should both butt out of trying to act like they want people to quit. They both make money on this stuff. And I don't know why government and health agencies who must know better don't do something about this. I can only speak anecdotally, but I personally don't know anyone who got into a quit with nicotine gum or a patch who stayed off. The only people I know who quit are the ones who went cold turkey or did a few days on non-nicotine based meds.
Want to know what worked for me and other people I know who have stayed off? Educated cold turkey. Visit www.whyquit.com with my strong personal endorsement.
It's free.
At least with the cigarette companies, you know what they're up to. With the pharma companies, it's harder to see them coming.
I think someone should pay to advertise cold turkey.
Addition: just located this link to the JAMA site.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/288/10/1260
Notice the conclusion:
"Since becoming available over the counter, NRT appears no longer effective in increasing long-term successful cessation in California smokers."
Posted by Derek Leverington at September 2, 2005 1:09 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)