How to get an "evil smoker" to quit
Saturday, October 17, 2009 This week the European Commission launched a "provocative, audacious and humorous anti-smoking campaign". The Helpers is a 12-episode animated series that depicts "three super-heroes who try to save smokers and non-smokers from the negative effects of tobacco, by giving them bizarre tips and advice".
The first episode is introduced as follows:
There's no apparent reason why Chuck, Skinny and Loona would ever meet up. Until the day when they all decide to take revenge on a cigarette factory, that is. They all blame it for a tragedy that's affected their personal lives and want to get their own back, but once they get there, they are splashed with toxic waste from an explosion, and undergo a crazy metamorphosis that will change their lives for ever. From now on, they have one sole aim in life: to protect people’s health before it’s too late.
The interactive web series is available in 23 languages. It doesn't take a linguist, however, to spot the "evil smoker". Two clues: he's holding a cigarette with one hand and a chainsaw with the other!
Click HERE.
H/T - Alex Deane/Big Brother Watch
Reader Comments (33)
Un-fucking-believable!
This is available on You Tube and of course you can comment, I have already in the 2nd URL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtejVB9YLmQ
http://www.youtube.com/helpisodes
This gets more terrifying every day. Can't anyone with power and influence see how this is yet more persecution of people who simply want to be left alone.
Actually if this keeps going I can actually picture myself holing a cigarette and carrying a CHAINSAW Grrrrrrrrrrr !
Here is another delightful little animated film, made by an earlier branch of the European Commission.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGNyc_LlJhs
It's directed at 'young people' yet the film carries a warning that it's not suitable for anyone under 15.
Bizarre.
Is the idea of the chainsaw-wielding, tree-cutting smoker to link smokers with environmental vandalism? So, now, smokers (and not smoking) are evil (am I stating the obvious?)
Can't you just wait for full-on post-ratification EU??
So -
Is the expression 'Nazi' STILL verboten when used to describe these fanatics ?
Some people - despite all the evidence of their rather toxic mindset - would probably think so.
What WILL it take to convince them ?
Smoking chimneys, perhaps ?
I think you have misinterpreted the ad. The chap with the chainsaw is not portrayed as an 'evil' smoker. He simply losses control of the chainsaw when one of his cigarettes falls on his shirt and distracts him.
As far as I can tell he then joins the other two characters, who have had their own bad experiences of smoking, and in the process gets transformed into a 'superhero'.
Considering that the ads look like they have been created to be slightly 'absurd and edgy' don't you think you are reading a bit much into this?
So, Fred, why wasn't he potrayed as a gardener or an organic farmer!? And why is the female character moved to quit smoking when she realises that smoking has ruined her looks?
Why is public money being spent on this animation (in 23 languages, no less)?
It can be as 'edgy', whacky or cutesy as it likes, it's still blatant propaganda.
Words fail me after viewing this sickening trash video on the denormalisation of smokers, I couldnt make head nor tail of it until I read the so called meaning of it shown here.
My impression is that it was made by someone who had recently undergone electric shock treatment in a mental instutition and put their scrambled visions on video.
No doubt the makers of this bullshit also have a Masters Degree in one of the many junk sciences they like to flaunt and impress us with in these 'enlightened' times.
The EU nazis are really stretching their tenticles lately.
The latest ad I've seen now has a real life brain damaged ex drunk driver giving a semi coherent spiel on how lowering the drink driving limit can only be a good thing because of the national disgrace of drink driving.
Where is it all going to end I wonder, are they ever going to let up on us and let us live our own life without dictation.
Or are we just cannon fodder to keep the bastards in their jobs.
How'se about all us smokers turn the tables and start up a campaign to Ban smoking altogether on the grounds that we can't take this drip, drip, torture anymore.
And see what the cowardly snakes say about that and their revenue!
Have any of you seen the horrendous antismoking video made by Birmingham PCT called Fightback which shows a smoker geting beaten to death on the street?
I know a few of you have, but I wonder how far this piece of filth has got around. It isn't on TV. I supspect the makers knew it wouldn't get past the ASA
I havent seen it so far Pat, but they're probably waiting for ASH to give it an award before it goes EU statewide.
I watched "Fightback" once and found it so horrific and disturbing that I cannot watch it again. It would have disturbed my sensibilities whatever the 'apparent' underlying message. As a matter of interest, I tweeted the link to Kery McCarthy saying, "what do you think of this". Her reply was "I couldn't watch it all the way through"!
Google, "smoking".
In news.
I am dismayed to see that the smoking ban reduces heart attack myth is still being pedalled by the anti smoking weirdos how are they getting away with it .
To control the media like that they must have a lot of money behond them.
Follow ther money.
Tim, what is this between you and Mzz Kerry Mc.Carthy-Blogspot, nulabor Tzaress for Acceptable Blogging Behaviour? :-)
I am meeting with Birmingham PCT to register officially my complaint about the anti-smoking Fightback video. I have asked Mz McCarthy as an MP if she would support smokERs in this complaint as she has done the Gay community that complained about the Gately story in the Daily Mail.
I explained to Mz McCarthy, that the Mail carried the false heart attack story on the same day, knowing full well it was false because they have been sent the info that explains exactly why this cannot be true.
I told Kerry that knowing that this information is untrue, and proceeding with it anyway, can only be because the Mail wants to create first fear and then prejudice against a minority group. I wait to hear if I get a reply on either political support for the complaint against the PCT or the Mail.
If the Mail had run a story on false "evidence" that standing next to a gay person could give you aids - I am sure she would be down on them like a ton of bricks.
I also asked her why the Govt doesn't seem to understand the difference between health propaganda and health information.
Pat, I haven't been following the Gately story but as far as your general point about distinguishing between health propaganda and information goes, I suspect that while the mass of the political class may swallow the misinformation whole, there are a few, among those who are disseminating it, who know exactly what they are doing.
Norman - I think the offence that the gay community took at the Gately story was that Jan Moir, the Daily Mail columnist, had criticised civil marriages and said that Gately's last night had involved marijuana smoking and three-in-bed sex. From reading Kerry's blog, I wondered if she had made a complaint to the PCC in support.
The heart attack reduction myth story (which would result in people fearing and shunning smokers) was in the same publication as Jan Moir's piece on Gately. I found the analogy between two minority groups interesting. Homosexuals were once shunned by an intolerant society as it was believed they followed a socially "unhealthy" lifestyle. Smokers are now being shunned and false "evidence" is being used effectively to eradicate them. I thought Kerry might "get it" and at least have some sympathy.
Incidentally, Jan Moir said in the apology that followed the Gately piece: ".. anyone can die of anything, at any time...." The united support that the gay community mustered meant ads were pulled and 21,000 complaints were made to the PCC. If only we smokers had that kind of organisation I'm sure the Mail would check it's figures and facts before publishing false information again.....
Pat- so what is it that stops we smokers from having that kind of organisation? Is it that homosexuals have organised themselves in response to a history of demonisation whereas we smokers have, in relative terms, suddenly found ourselves demonised? Is it that smokers define themselves as mothers/daughters/sons/workers etc who happen to smoke just as others define themselves as mothers etc who happen to eat chicken and the demonisation doesn't strike at the core of their being? And, if smoking doesn't define them, are smokers just guilty of the apathy indulged in by the electorate in general: "I don't do politics"? Is it that the majority of militant homosexuals are also educated, fairly affluent people who have access to the internet and have the nous to suss out sources of support whereas the majority of smokers don't? I suspect it's a combination (plus factors that I've disregarded/sm unaware of)
I despair when I hear smokers phonein to the likes of Ed Doolan's programme to say that they agree with the likes of Bannatyne or I talk to smokers who are sharing the same park bench who don't realise that the ban is based on spin and that there's opposition to it...
More power to your elbow in challenging the ad, Pat, and in your dialogue with Kerry McCarthy. Your commitment and time are appreciated.
Well done Pat, I am sure you will keep everyone informed as to the outcome, if there is any?
With regard to Joyce's post, and the inference that "gays" organise themselves better. If you look at the situation carefully Joyce, you will note that gays do not have to organise themselves any more. They may have at the beginning (meaning 20 years ago or more), but now there are gay newspapers and magazines, gay clubs and bars, gay holidays and resorts, gay films and plays, and it is no longer a slur to be considered gay, in fact in certain professions, it is just the opposite.
If people who smoke had their own newspapers and magazines, think of the difference that would make. For obvious reasons, smokers cannot have their own clubs or bars, because it is "against the law". Smoker's holidays? Perhaps, but that is assuming that all smokers want to go to Spain. I run a villa and apartment rental business in Spain, and I have on several occasions, offered discounted holidays, for all fellow smokers. I have yet to receive one reply! I also set up a website called the Smokers Magazine, which due to lack of interest, failed miserably.
Maybe I should try setting up something for "gay smokers?"
I do recall that when the power of the Pink Pound began to be realised, gay people began to be treated with respect. Before the smoking ban, I tried the same thing, always politely refusing and walking out of non-smoking premises and refusing to buy my Xmas cards from prejuidicial charity shops such as CRUK and the BHF. My single smoker pound was hardly enough to make these firms think about their policies but I hoped I'd made a point. I just wish that I'd known about the network of smokers I have met since the ban. If we began our organisation five years ago, then this ban would never have happened.
It only came to be because everyone - including pub owners - were conned into believing there would still be some choice right up until that hateful woman Hewitt suddenly anounced that a signitificant minority in this country didn't deserve any consideration whatsoever and the bigots should be allowed to win.
Incidentally, Dave Atherton, in his F2C capacity, will be supporting my complaint. We can then tell the PCT that we have the voice of a movement behind us and we speak for thousands of smokers.
Thats an idea, how'se about asking the gays to back us against the smoking ban.
They have a lot of monied people and hugely organised in all the media outlets that would be beneficial to us.
We could base our appeal as being fellow sufferers of a disenfranchised minority in society, and that we would much appreciate it if they gave us an entre to their vast media resources.
I think the biggest "gay" periodical is the Gay News, which you can access here
Maybe we could write to them or email them or even join in a discussion group, pointing out the discrimination which exists for smokers.
I am sure they already know this, but to get it from a different perspective just might do something, who knows?
Ann - following a debate on this very issue on Facebook, I am sad to say the gay community does not recognise us as being oppresed in the same way. They believe they have no "choice" and are born to be homosexual. We, on the other hand, as one commenter put it, "stink and infect other people". Another one said "what's the problem. You only have to go outside. You are only being asked to consider other people and not smoke where ever you like. I thank the powers that be every day for the smoking ban because I don't smell like an ashtray when I leave the pub anymore." Some were even offended that I noted the similarities between our two minorities.
There are certainly cultural smokers and I consider myself to be one of those. There are also people with "smoking fetishes". I'm not sure what that is, but it still sounds cultural to me. Some of the gays I debated with do not accept there is anyhting different about having a cigarette or eating a bar of chocolate and so therefore, it doesn't matter if you do it inside or outside.
In short, don't expect help generally from the gay comunity. I've found it to be generally anti-smoking on health and smell grounds.
However, having just seen Peter's post. What have we to lose by trying what he suggests? It is a great idea. Perhaps I just bumped into the wrong bunch?
Certainly someone I know, a lesbian who moved to San Francisco before gay equality in the UK, is now more fearful at being caught smoking as she battles to retain joint custody of her child with her former female partner. As a smoker in the US, you are considerd to be the same as those who murdered Baby P. So for her, being gay is not an issue, but being a smoker could impact upon her human rights as a parent.
Slightly different issue I know Pat, but you mentioned the old "smell factor", again, which is used against smokers so often these days.
As I have said before, I have personally smelt cigarettes or tobacco on my clothing or hair etc., which some people say, is because I am a smoker myself, and therefore become almost immune to the smell.
I disagree with this, as I have a particularly sensitive sense of smell, being able to detect chewing gum up to a mile away, when being chewed. Just kidding of course, but I can smell it very strongly and I hate it.
As an experiment however, I took a brand-new face flannel, and placed it on a side table next to where I sit at home, and where I smoke. It has been on that table now for over two weeks, whilst I have smoked endless cigarettes and cigars.
Yesterday, I asked my wife to smell the flannel and to tell me honestly if she could smell any tobacco smells on it. She sniffed and sniffed, and finally said she wasn't sure, but she thought she could.
I then went and got another new flannel from the bathroom, and marked one flannel with a piece of sellotape, so I knew which was which. I then asked her to sniff both flannels and then say if she could tell me which one was the "smoker's flannel". Again she sniffed and sniffed both flannels, and finally came up with her answer, pointing to the one with the sellotape.
It was then that I told her, that the two flannels she had sniffed, were both new ones from the bathroom, and neither of them had been exposed to tobacco in any way. I had left the "smoker's flannel" outside the room!
In my opinion, this shows you just how much a person's mind can be influenced by the power of auto suggestion. She thought one of the flannels contained some sort of tobacco smell, and so she had to pick one.
The people who say all that rubbish about their clothes and hair are just acting in the same manner!
P.S. I wrote "I have personally smelt cigarettes or tobacco on my clothing or hair etc.,
Should read "never" smelt cigarettes or tobacco on my clothing or hair etc.
Hi Peter. Yes, I totally agree about the power of suggestion.
I remember a few years ago having a meeting with someone in a cafe who I knew was a non-smoker. I asked if she minded if I smoked at the table after our meal. I was very surprised when she said : "No, please do go ahead. I gave up smoking several years ago but I still love the smell."
Today I walked through Boots on my local High Street. The perfume and scent counter is at the front of the store and the mixture of very strong, sweet and sickly, smells was vile and making me want to wretch.
I like the smell of tobacco and I am not alone. People have been conditoned to hate the smell but smell in itself has been dismissed in the past as a valid reason to restrict life-styles which is why the antis had to up the stakes and "prove" it hurt other people through SHS.
I still think the only reason they have been taken seriously is because the antis found an ally in the current Labour Govt which was is full of obessesive health freaks who have no idea of the meaning of personal choice and freedom.
Speaking about the power of auto suggestion and such, I have been doing some research for a book, and just came across this extract, from a review about a pub in Soho:
"Best seat If packed, sit at the small bar in the George Orwell room upstairs, which is smoke-free (a bit late, considering he died of TB in 1950) and usually empty ..."
What the hell has TB to do with smoking now?
Pat (and Basil) The letter to Ms McCarthy, although it will very probably not receive a reply, is nevertheless not a wasted effort. I think it is important and a commendable effort for people such as you Pat to take the trouble to spotlight issues such as the false claim printed in the Daily Mail. I personally inform certain MPs (and others) about such things. I say 'certain' ones, not all of them, as after a while you begin to realise which ones, even if they do not always respond, look at what has been sent.
My new motto is, keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.
Bloody hell, even the gays dont want to be associated with us.
Does that leave the Taliban?
I know what my attitude will be in future if any minority groups come looking for support from me.
I'll tell them to f..k off, or you back me and I'll back you mate.
You've hit the nail on the head Peter, about how we're all influenced by the power of suggestion.
Govts and their spin doctors have been subjecting us to it for the past decade and they have it down to a fine art.
But the biggest danger for all us minorities in these modern times, is self interest, the 'I'm all right Jack'
response of the gays to our plight for example.
And Big Brother's spin doctors only know this too well.
That's why they can target and annhilate minority groups like us smokers with impunity.
I've just been listening to a blustering fool of a wanker on radio today, complaining about the lost revenue caused by contraband cigarettes and how some shops are selling them and screaming for the fines to be increased.
Long live the revolution!
Thank goodness the Gays don't have any 'filthy habits' of their own, eh ?