Janice Milliman, Quit Coach, Service Delivery:

Scare tactics generally don't work for changing behavior, at least not for long. So I'm not convinced that putting up graphic pictures of diseased organs is an effective anti-smoking campaign.

New York and Massachusetts were the first to institute this new tactic, designed to deter kids from picking up the habit. The New York City Health Department states, "Point-of-purchase warnings are one of the best tools we have to keep the next generation of New Yorkers from becoming addicted. By trying to suppress this educational campaign, the tobacco industry is signaling its desire to keep kids in the dark." Additional support for the ads comes from Eric Lindblom, with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in Washington. "To have something there to remind them how horrible, how addictive this is, to tell them how to get help, we think it will be a very, very powerful tool for counteracting the power of tobacco advertising at the retail outlet."

The ads I've seen are quite graphic, impersonal, and ugly, to say the least. I know my kids, age 7 and 10, would find them alarming. Teenagers will say they're "totally gross," but usually are more motivated to quit when they learn smoking causes wrinkles. Is this really the best way to motivate kids to quit, or better yet, never start? Maybe not. The ads I've seen don't show or describe how addictive smoking or nicotine is. While most people have heard gory details of smoking's effects, many don't know how physically addictive nicotine is when inhaled through a cigarette.

I can't help but draw some correlation to other ad campaigns involving healthy behaviors. Take a look at the got milk? commercials and ads. Do they depict an older osteoporotic and bent over woman who didn't drink enough milk? No. Do they show what your bones look like with osteoporosis? No. When we're young, we don't think those things will ever happen to us. That type of advertising just doesn't work on kids.

The got milk? ads encourage kids to drink milk by showing celebrities--positive role models--with a milk 'stash. My daughter would be more impressed with a poster of Justin Bieber and the healthy lungs he has, than a poster of the black lungs of some nameless person.