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DrugScreening.org


 
New ASH Ad Compares Tobacco Firms to 9/11 Terrorists
March 3, 2008

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News Summary

The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center and attacked the Pentagon were pikers compared to the tobacco industry, which is responsible for the deaths of 30 million people since 2001, a new ad from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) contends.

The worldwide death toll from terrorism since 2001 stands at about 11,337, ASH said on its website, but secondhand smoke alone kills tens of thousands of people annually. The ad features an image of two cigarettes resembling the burning Twin Towers after they were hit by hijacked passenger jets on 9/11.

The ad was produced in New Zealand, and ASH has posted the ad on its U.S. website along with a forum for comments to gauge Americans' reaction to the image. Some viewers have criticized the ad.

"It's obviously true that the tobacco companies have caused far more deaths than terrorists, than all world wars, than all natural disaster, all crime, and virtually any other event or activity which results in mass deaths," said ASH executive director John Banzhaf.

But it's not clear whether that's a comparison that viewers will find acceptable, he acknowledged.

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:

Posted by Linda SW on 04 Mar 08 09:26 AM EST
While I agree on the evils of tobacco and other addictions, to compare this to the horror of 9/11 and other terrorist attacks is yet another cheap, sensationalist shot that diminshes the losses of 9/11 AND those associated with theaddictions. As someone who still grieves from personal losses associated with both the burning towers and consequences of cigarette addiction, I find the approach taken by ASH abhorrent.

Posted by David Macmaster on 04 Mar 08 08:29 AM EST
We have considered using this theme in our tobacco education materials. Our theme does not show the World Trade Center towers, but does report that more than a million people with alcohol, drug dependence and mental illness have died from tobacco since 9/11. While the visual presentation of the ASH ad may be a turn-off for some the truth of the information is accurate and needs reporting if the world is finally going to identify the tobacco industry for what it is and what its goals are. Before the "enlightenment'tobacco was perceived as just another legal product from nature. Now that the information and science is accepted this vision of the tobacco industry needs to be replaced whether the method may not always be comfortable for some. Denial is the touchstone of addiction and the world's lack of understanding of the public health down side from tobacco needs to be trumpeted until the message becomes the new "conventional wisdom." Good job ASH.

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