Hey Kids, Your Money or Your Life?
Editorial

As the newest wave of anti-tobacco propaganda is settling into the backyards of cities across America, it’s becoming apparent that the state-employed ad agencies responsible for the propaganda are sparing no one in their crusade to end cigarette consumption. The pictured billboard is but one in a vast chain sprawled along the New Jersey Turnpike that reads: "Hey Kids! Your Money or Your Life?"

Renowned for decades of subversive advertising, the cigarette industry has now follen prey to its own folly: an unflinching campaign of misleading ads that deceptively promoted a product exclusively designed to kill you. The problem was never with the health side of the issue (plenty of products are designed to have a similar effect and are rarely scrutinized), but with the approach of the industry- the glamourization and cartoon-marketing- in conjuction with a seemingly bottomless budget.
What we are now seeing appear in retaliation to decades of pro-cigarette banter bears striking resemblance to the original monster in terms of budget, ambiguity, and target marketing. While the new wave of this advertising has a fundamentally different goal (it is actually de-advertising cigarettes), the less-obvious similarity is haunting: these people are still maintaining a deeply flawed approach.

Alluding to the dismal line that made the cover of Newsweek half a decade ago ("Your Shoes or Your Life"), this billboard is appealing to one of the rawest human emotions (fear), while targeting children and subconsciously promoting violence, or at least the idea of violence. If you’re coming at this thing from a humanistic perspective, this is not a good idea.
After this year’s shocking spree of youth killings, one would assume that any reference to violence as a youth marketing ploy (be it to sell or un-sell a product) would qualify as tasteless- even unconscionable. One must remember that this sell tactic was officially banned from cigarette advertising for a reason. Apparently, the government has decided that their own rules don’t apply to their propaganda.