#knowtherealcost

[teratosapphic]

BIG PSA

There's an ad from @knowtherealcost with a pair of lungs snowboarding, which contains strong gore. It's not tagged in the slightest, and it's really easy to find unsettling. PLEASE signal boost this.

[zonotrichia-albicollis]

[banefulchordate]

I really wish i could report ads since i can't blacklist them for body horror. Maybe what #therealcost is is my queasiness.

Also, might i add that nicotine addiction is the real epidemic. But whatever, political motivation is an equally good justification to make me feel terrible as any. I don't even vape.

[candlelit-caudatus]

@knowtherealcost heard you were talking shit square up.

[freezer-bird]

Can @knowtherealcost mind their own fucking business for 2 seconds? They are not preventing anything or helping anyone quit. Put your money into something useful like housing for LGBT people, actual addicts or mentally ill people, maybe make a soup kitchen or help people get jobs, don't make clickbaity adds on tumblr.com about not smoking because you're helping exactly no one. In conclusion, fuck "know the real cost".

[quinfero]

The KnowTheRealCost ads are so bad they make me want to take up smoking. 

[crimeronan]

hey @knowtherealcost let me give you some free marketing advice because whoever’s running your tumblr and ad campaigns in general is doing an atrocious job and being forced to look at your ads gives me a sense of righteous indignation not because i smoke or because i think smoking is awesome but because you’re Doing It Wrong

your whole approach to telling teenagers and young adults not to smoke is “slap a meme on scary cigarette facts and they’ll eat it up,” it’s painfully obvious you’re relying on viral marketing to get you where you need to go.  you look at millennials sharing memes and cat pics and silly comics and go “man... let’s do that... but with SCARY SMOKING FACTS... this is a Foolproof Campaign Approach”

what you haven’t counted on is that millennials are more tech savvy than you and as we understand how the internet and desperate grabs for viral marketing work, we see right through this approach.  your average 15-25 year old tumblr user isn’t going to see an anti-smoking ad forced onto their dash and think, “haha, a meme, i’ll reblog that.” your average 15-25 year old tumblr user is going to see an anti-smoking ad forced onto their dash and think, “haha oh man these people are trying so hard it’s hilarious. fuck off you condescending piles of smelly ass”

not to mention you’re literally just regurgitating facts everyone already hears in their high school health classes. it’s 2016, guys. we’re past the point where tobacco companies try to convince us their products are healthy.  no one thinks cigarette smoking is healthy.  tobacco companies are still in business because they sell a narrative that smoking both kills pain and fits a certain aesthetic.  instead of talking about things everyone already knows - cigarettes yellow teeth, cause premature wrinkles, cause lung cancer, etc - maybe, hmm, ADDRESS THAT NARRATIVE??

your campaign is so superficial it kills me, your image of a millennial is a silly caricature of an arrogant young person who only cares about being beautiful enough to take selfies.  here’s the real truth: the communities most vulnerable to taking up smoking are made up of mentally ill people and low income people.  people who take up smoking just so they can get a break to go outside during long fast food shifts.  people who take up smoking because they’re depressed or manic or anxious (i’m bipolar, i’ve been in all three spots) and they think dragging smoke into their lungs is the best way to calm down.

you’re willfully ignoring the people who are ACTUALLY vulnerable to smoking because they don’t fit the palatable narrative that everyone who smokes is an idiot making bad choices and deserves to die.  and when you don’t target the people who are ACTUALLY vulnerable to smoking, you accomplish fucking nothing.  a sixteen year old girl sees one of your ads about premature wrinkles and says, “ew, i’ll never smoke.” she said the same thing when her teacher showed slides of bubbling charred lungs in health class.  a sixteen year old bipolar girl sees one of your ads about premature wrinkles and says, “lol, who gives a fuck, i want to die anyway.”

your campaign goes from misguided to straight-up offensive when you use facts like “smokers earn 20% less than nonsmokers.”  you’re SO CLOSE to starting a meaningful conversation - except your ads are saying “if you smoke, you’ll make less money and be less successful” rather than “lower income people are more vulnerable to developing a smoking habit.” why do you feel the need to twist correlations around to make them superficial AGAIN?

quit the condescending meme bullshit. quit the misinformation. quit the assumption that millennials are so self-obsessed that the only way to run an anti-smoking campaign is through a superficial lens.  we see right through that.  instead start an Actual Conversation about the race and class and mental health and historical dynamics at play.  it’s not as fun as putting ‘don’t smoke’ on a sparkly cat, but we’re on a blogging website.  start a conversation and people will continue it.  start a conversation and you might actually engage the people who don’t care about basic high school health class facts.

[dannydeviitoscummies]

@knowtherealcost shitty memes aren't gonna make me stop smoking fam