I'm not a smoker, but If I'd seen that it would have made me think.

We went through emphysema with a late relative, and the ads tell it like it is.

Yep, they do. My step father had emphysema. it's not a nice thing.

But I don't think that a lot of teens believe that bad things are going to happen to them. They don't believe that they will get old and wrinkled, crippled, or demented.

Or eaten up with cancer from smoking. Some Teens tend to buck sensible advice.

They certainly do no harm.....and if 1 % of the kids who see them quit or never start.....they are well worth whatever the cost.

Linda said what was I thinking, if it stopped one, that'd be something!

I already know I wouldn't have smoked. Smoking was allowed in my high school, strangely. The designated area was just outside the cafeteria. I would look at those kids and think, what makes that so great to them? Of course, I'd grown up with parents who smoked in the car, windows fully up-so I'd already learned to hate smoking. I sure was glad when my grandfather quit and my mom quit. I wasn't around dad when he quit. He quit when my elder sister's daughter handed him a bag of gummy bears and told him to eat those instead of smoking! after being released from the hospital with pneumonia one too many times.

Smoking has been so vilified in recent times that I think these ads are not that effective. And teens can't relate to people as old as those in the commercials. I rarely see really young people smoking anymore, it's just not the "cool" thing it was a few decades ago. I have a daughter who is 19 and she and all of her friends think smoking is really disgusting.

What really concerns me is these energy drinks and their implications that even if you aren't eating right or getting enough sleep, you can get energy from a can. I worry about the damage being done to young hearts by all of that caffeine. I wish they would stop selling them to anyone under 18, and put the amount of caffeine on the label.

Rob said it for me, "I'd grown up with parents who smoked in the car, windows fully up-so I'd already learned to hate smoking." I couldn't wait to move out because of that and many other reasons.

I will never forget the movies we were shown in high school of what drugs did to sinus cavities, the brain etc. I was never drawn to drugs, the movie just further cemented my belief.

I agree that even if only one young person--or anyone, for that matter--is deterred or stops smoking b/c of those ads, it will be worthwhile. However, I also agree that most teens don't think they will ever get old, or that anything like that could/would happen to them. Even young adults--who began smoking as teens, I guess--seem to forget/bypass/overlook the possible future horrors of smoking. I particularly have in mind a 23 year old who didn't stop smoking all thru her pregnancy, even tho she knew the possible harm it could do to her unborn child. To me, that's almost "child neglect".

As a young child, I couldn't wait till I got old enough to smoke--I had an aunt who seemed very glamorous with a cocktail in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Fortunately, the first time I tried it, I choked and that was enough for me. Knowing how hard it is for me to stay away from chocolate chip cookies, I'd have a harder time stopping smoking!

I probably would have smoked anyway. My Dad smoked and when he went somewhere he smoked Chesterfields and I loved the smell of them on his clothes. When at home he rolled his own and they didn't smell as good. When I smoked I knew I'd never get COPD or anything else bad as that only happened to other people, not me. Besides all the popular kids in High School smoked, You were cool!