The most effective anti-smoking ad for me was that every smoker I've ever met says they're trying to quit and not succeeding.

I don’t smoke because I swallowed a smoke alarm when I was young so if I smoke it’s really loud

The most effective anti-smoking campaign for me growing up (as a millennial) was actually a school assembly. This guy came to my school and didn't talk at all about the health effects of smoking; but rather how terrible and corrupt tobacco companies are. I never had the desire to smoke anyway, but learning that tobacco companies are the ACTUAL devil really drove it home for me.

As someone who works with kids, my number one philosophy is not treat children as adults, but treat them as human beings. They aren’t stupid and they are incredibly good at figuring out when they’re being talked down to.

I remember when Nickelodeon would show anti smoking ads with some lady with a cork in her throat and it scared the heck out of me as a kid.

That Truth Ad would’ve been good if it was like “People in college who try cigarettes still smoke 4 years later” and then it’s a guy smoking a cig and referencing dead memes from his college years, still doing the same shit 4 years later.

The reason I’ve never done coke is because my guitar teacher very seriously told me that it’s amazing, and if I start, I’ll never want to stop. If they stop underestimating teens, they can actually do some good.

One time we had an anti weed PSA when I was about 16. Shit was real. It didn’t make weed out as the devil, it just showed slowly how weed makes teenagers change priorities and inhibit their success. It was the story of a relatively young lad who inhibited himself in college because he started smoking hella weed. It was the best one I’ve ever seen because it was so realistic

Conspiracy: truth is actually owned by big tobacco to reverse psychology kids to smoke

It's sad but sometimes you just gotta scare the shit out of kids, the real cost was effective as hell

Fun fact: a different anti-vaping campaign (I think it’s called like the facts now or something) made a horror game where you have to go through rooms quickly to escape an insane asylum or be left to rot. It isn’t until the very end though that it tells you that this is what vaping is like.

This is so interesting bc the only Truth ads I see on tiktok are the creepy, vaguely threatening videos that have real facts. This is entirely different, it’s crazy how brands do that and it’s crazy how good the algorithm is that it shows such differently toned things to people who engage in different content

The anti-smoking ads that had the lady with a hole in her neck permanently scarred me as a child. Those were effective.

I miss that brief period of time where vaping was a cringey thing to do in itself

I'm a 16 year old that quit smoking weed, vaping and drinking liquor about like 5 months ago, and I can honestly say that it wasn't any anti-smoking campaign that got me clean, it was myself. I found a passion, which was working out and making music, and now I'm a lot happier than I was. Truth should focus on what to do, rather than what NOT to do, because putting the situation in a positive context and looking for the next step is a lot more effective than just avoiding the negative. There is a way out of addiction.

As a little girl in elementary school, they showed us a model of a human mouth that had been smoking vs a healthy mouth. That alone made me know I never wanted to put those cancer sticks near me. No fuzzy tongue and yellow teeth for me please! I don’t see how they expect these tiktok videos to work. Like you said, the facts are the best way to go about anti smoking campaigns. Being cringe just makes kids wanna vape out of spite.

So, fun fact - a lot of if not all tobacco companies are required by law to fund anti-smoking ads, so it’s not uncommon for anti-smoking ads to be used to secretly advertise smoking. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the “this ad is so cringy, I’m going to smoke out of spite” mentality is intentional.

The only anti smoking campaign that ever worked on me was the old people with holes in their throats doing daily tasks.

I grew up in a non-smoking home. My dad had quit smoking when my older brother was born and only picked it back up after I (the youngest) turned 16. Growing up, he ate a lot of those nicotine gums and pills and stuff. I didn't understand why until I realized he was doing it for his kids. He didn't want us to start smoking too, so he held back until he knew it wouldn't affect us as much anymore. The first time I saw him smoke, I was shocked. I'm the only child living at our home (I am an adult now tho) and he has still never smoked full on I front of me. He just does it when he goes for a walk or takes out the dog. I'm really grateful for him Growing up I had a friend who's mom was a smoker. It wasn't to the point where their house would smell or anything, but I do remember one conversation I had with that friend. I think we were playing house, and she had one of those candy cigarettes or pipes and said she wanted to start smoking when she was an adult like her mom. Sure enough, when we became teenagers, she started smoking and we kinda drifted apart after that (for other reasons). The environment you grow up in affects whether you'll smoke or not as much or even more than the friends you have. Parents need to set examples for their kids, and kids need to know all the risks of vaping and smoking. My country is trying to become smokeless in the future and I really hope that can happen one day.

I started smoking when I was 14, 14 years ago, after my mom died, from smoking. I quit one week ago tomorrow. I knew how stupid I was being picking it up. I had it in my mind, "I won't be addicted like everyone else." Well, 14 years later I can safely say they are definitely addicting. I stopped cold turkey, and I don't anticipate going back to being a daily smoker, but I definitely can tell I'm probably going to relapse at some point unfortunately. Ugh. I'm sorry Mom.

The best anti-drug message I ever got was from one of my teachers. She passed out the calculators and had us count up how much it costs to smoke a pack a day for a week, a month, or a year. Then she handed out newspaper ads and asked us to cut out all the cool shit we'd rather buy with that amount of money. That stuck with me harder than the photos of black lungs. I didn't have a good grasp of my own mortality, but I understood money well enough to know I'd rather have the iPod.

“Ayo no vapes check” feels like a super upbeat contraband sweep

In Australia where I lived for most of my childhood the cigarette boxes have pictures of diseased organs and such to deter people from smoking. I don’t smoke but I’d see that shit on the ground everywhere when I walked home from school so that was fun. Definitely don’t wanna smoke tho so I guess it works pretty well.

i’m 16, and i switched to vapes when i got sober off of harder substances, honestly i think what would help is the support, the kindness, it’s really hard to get clean when you have a bunch of adults being mad at you or patronizing you for it. You absolutely are on the right track :)

in 5 more years, when the meme dries off completely, they’ll be saying “Smoking is not pogchamp. What are you, a Big Tobacco simp?”

“Quit smoking or we’ll keep making cringe meme commercials” is a pretty strong message...

One of the anti smoking ads from my childhood that really stuck with me was one of the "Real Cost" commercials, where the girl in the ad is signing a contract giving away her freedom and allowing the cigarettes to run her life. I think those work so well because they're really driving home the message that you're slowly becoming a slave to this addiction. And teens want to be free.

I liked Truth's "its a great big world" campaign where they gave some facts about how damaging smoking can be while showing some unsettling Claymation body horror.

I don't know if this was just a small town Canada thing, but when the anti-smoking people came into my elementary class with a pig's lung and trachea to show us how cigarettes do ya dirty... I felt that.

Ironically, the anti-smoking ads we all remember are 1) the ones with seriously ill people 2) the ones with adults. For some reason we’re more affected by the ones who relate to our future selves than our present selves

Just as a perspective, I started vaping at 14, it led me to smoking, I smoked and vaped for 5 years with the last 2 being mostly vaping, over that time I developed a smokers cough, my lungs felt like shit every day for years, I couldn't exercise and do cardio without severe pain in my lungs, I was having chest pain often, my O2 saturation was at 94-95 consistently by 19. Here I am, after many attempts at quitting iver the last 4 years and finally off it once again, my lungs feel much better, my O2 is between 99-100, my cough is mostly gone, I'm not having chest pains, I'm not wasting my money on something that I've grown to hate because of the redundancy and detriment to my health. Nicotine fucking sucks, if you don't think that now then give it 5 years tops and you'll think it then, quit before it makes your life a miserable cycle of slowly killing yourself with a drug you can't stand but keep doing because of the addiction.

I started smoking and vaping as a teen and have quit more than once and honestly the most effective ad was on youtube saying using nicotine when anxious is a scam and makes you more anxious and I realized how bad my anxiety was since I picked up nicotine again and I tend to go back to it when I'm under a lot of stress.

“You don’t want anti-smoking campaigns to become cringy in kids heads because then vaping becomes cool and not vaping becomes not cool” Truth & D.A.R.E don’t get it tho. You broke it down perfectly, hopefully they see this lol

Eddy’s reminds me of my older brother that moved out like 4 years ago but when he comes to visit it’s like he never left at all. Basically I’m always happy to see him regardless of how long I have to wait, and it’s as if he never left in the first place when he comes back!

Honestly the most effective thing that kept me from smoking was my mother describing how hard it was to quit. She chose to quit before having kids so that my siblings and I could be healthy. I didn't want to have to quit some day, and I didn't want to throw away the incredibly difficult thing my mother had done for me. I guess the lesson here is that emphasizing what it takes to stop smoking can be really effective for some kids.

For anyone trying to quit nicotine: I had to quit nicotine for a surgery. I happened to be on a drug for mental health called Wellbutrin/bupropion. Turns out it’s also a smoking aid cessation drug. I thought quitting nicotine would be the hardest thing of my life but it was actually pretty easy, and I didn’t even know why until I was looking into my meds more. So like… unironically, talk to your doctor about Wellbutrin/smoking cessation meds lol, it might save your life! Having a good, tangible reason to quit also helped quite a bit too.

As a non US citisen, our anti smoking campaigns are literally just slogans like "smoking kills" or just a picture of lung cancer.

The most effective anti smoking ads to me personally was “the real cost” ones. There was this one add where the guy doesn’t have enough money for cigarettes and he takes a pair of pliers and pulls out his teeth and another where a girl rips the skin off her cheeks and it was so fucking scary that I think it really made me never want to smoke

This video and Eddy being so genuinely supportive made me want to quit way more than any ad campaign ever has.

One time in high school I asked a friend of mine why she would voluntarily throw herself into a nicotine addiction and she went "oh I'm not addicted, I just like to vape" this was a few days after she'd had us all go to the bathroom with her because she needed to vape. Multiple people told me they vaped because it "helped with their anxiety" apparently having no clue that one of the biggest nicotine withdrawal symptoms is increased anxiety. I also had many people tell me they wanted to smoke, do drugs, get drunk, or have sex just because if they didn't do any of that in highschool they'd feel that they'd "missed out" some even said that highschool is the time to experiment with those things.

Eddy really pinpointed the hardest part about being a teen in the modern era. They’re treated like children and expected to act like adults.

Honestly, the best anti-smoking ad for me is having a mother who smokes. She’s generally pretty healthy which I’m thankful for, but you can tell she hates smoking and that it’s hard for her to stop even though she wants to

I think the scariest thing about addiction to these sorta things can be the loss of control. I didn't care that I was hurting myself in the long or short term. Maybe even I liked that. But the part that scared me was when I was trying to quit. I realized my addiction was controlling me and I was shackled by it. It's been a few years now and I still get the urge sometimes. Don't get started and stop while you still can.

I remember when I was in school, as an “anti-smoking” ad, my teacher just showed us a video about this person who had to cut their jaw off because of smoking/chewing tobacco. It’s one of the only things that stuck with me. Never smoked because I wanted to keep my face. All anti drug ads should be like this, wanna keep your kids from smoking? Show them someone with half their face gone bc they smoked.

The most effective anti-smoking ad I ever saw was a testimonial--not from a smoker, but from a man who'd gotten lung cancer from second hand smoking. It really drove home that smoking doesn't just hurt you; it hurts the people around you, too.

This video might actually have a bigger impact on getting people to stop than the campaigns

I’m trying to create my own antivape program in my community using research from a lab that I work in. Seeing videos like this really helps to give insight on how to approach kids in a way that isn’t belittling and actually helps. Thank you!

My Grandfather, a lung doctor, told me when I was five that smoking turns your lungs back and makes them full of holes. I thought “Hey! I like my lungs!” And that’s been the impetus for my lack of desire to ever do drugs of any kind.

the best anti smoking commercial were those ones where they pulled their teeth out or ripped their skin off to trade in for a pack. I’ll never forget those

The only respectable anti smoking campaign was “the real cost”. That shit scared me enough to never even consider smoking.

I smoked for almost 20 years, and quitting is one of the best things I've ever done for my health. It'll be 2 years next month🙌

I remember going to an event on New Year’s Eve at my favorite bar with my partner. We were complimenting a woman on her outfit and had a little conversation. Eventually she said she and her group were heading outside to smoke and asked if we wanted to join them. Neither of us smoke, so we said no. And she said “good! Don’t start!” And honestly? That was probably the most effective “anti smoking” thing I’ve experienced in the past decade

As a teen, I'm convinced truth is secretly funded by vape companies using reverse psychology to get us to vape. Those ads are just SO out of touch.

When I was a smoker, a lot of the really shamey anti-smoking ads would just make me want to have a cigarette because the shame kind of makes you feel resigned to being a smoker. It’s a lot of self hate. The one ad that really worked for me was one about a teen girl and all the times she would have to withdraw from her friends to go smoke, essentially like “you just got all this freedom and now you’re giving it all up again,” because it kind of reminded me like, hey my time is valuable and I’ve been choosing to spend it in a way that pulls me away from what I really love. That worked so much better on me than “EW SMOKERS ARE SO GROSS” because then I’d just be like “yup” and I’d go smoke.

Ive been so frustrated since i was in high school with this judgmental mentality towards smokers. Its obviously something we should discourage, but to out right judge someone as if it speaks for their character, is morally wrong and logically not effective. People should be educated on the health risks, the manipulation in marketing, and the socioeconomic targeting, and with all of that knowledge, still have the right to decide if they want to use these things. Yes there should be restrictions that prevent it from hurting everyone else, but that is all there should be.

As a 90's kid, I always found this whole campaign so hilarious and yet brutally informative. I'm supposed to not smoke weed yet my parents are getting shittered on alcohol and it's totally fine

The best anti smoking commercials are the ones that are borderline grotesque. I remember seeing one were a girl teen is trying to buy a pack of cigarettes, and she doesn't have enough money, so she peels off her skin to pay for them. This shows how smoking can cause bad effect on your body. I was scared so much, I decided I would never smoke. That is what works. Not putting cringy memes and dancing with no meaning.

Those ads by "The Real Cost" scarred me as a kid.

I remember being young and I know I would have appreciated ads that didn't try to pander to me and instead would have laid out the facts. "Smoking cigarettes can be fun, but at what cost? Chain smokers die in droves in their 60s, here's what their lungs look like post mortem. Scared, addicted? It's okay. Here are resources to help you quit and stay clean."

This unlocked a core memory- a campaign called Shards o Glass pops- a commercial with ice pops that had glass in them. It was a parody of tobacco companies who tried to sell you something that was obviously terrible for you.

"the real cost" ones on snapchat honestly guilted me into stopping because they showed like gross anatomical shit that i was like "damn yeah thats like actually my body" so i stopped. shits morbid but it works

“you can’t treat a teenager like their 5.” my parents: *im just gonna pretend I didn’t see that*

When I was little, I saw an ad for anti-smoking that showed a pair of shriveled lungs, and there was also that one with the lady that had a hole in her neck, and how she had to clean it out and stuff. So yeah, I'm never smoking thanks to those ads.

"The real cost" ads are the only ones that actually had an impact on me. Especially the one with the package and the teeth

Why don't they just put a freaking cancer riddled black lung on their ads? Seeing that scared me straight as a kid.

The anti smoking ads that worked on me were ALWAYS the creepy horror type ones, scared the shit out of me and made never wanna try it

When I was younger (mind you I’m about 17 now), there was this one anti-smoking ad, where it shows this guy smoking in a dark area, possibly under a bridge/tunnel, and a mailman comes up to him, and hands him a package. In that package is a horrible, disgusting, smoker mouth/teeth. He looks at it then he puts his hand to his mouth, the camera goes back to the box and they’re gone. The guy is freaking out. Because now he realizes the effects of what he’s been using. That is probably the biggest reason I have never ever wanted to smoke. Even thinking about it is so gross.

Shoutout to the 1% of teens smoking tobacco from a pipe according to that infographic

I swear the only way to actually get these anti smoking campaigns to work is through sheer shock therapy. No flashing lights or dances. Show someone dealing with severe lung cancer. Show someone who wasted over thousands of dollars on addiction. Show someone who's baby was damaged by tobacco. Show someone who ruined their house with tobacco stains. Show someone who lost/can't make friends from how disgusting they smell. Show someone's teeth. Show someone who can't be very social or do many social things due to constant smoke breaks. Show someone with those hole in throat machines due to throat cancer. If you show that rather than "#stopvapingchallenge" it not only shows to the audience that you're taking this seriously and you care about them but it also lets the audience know why they should quit or never start. If you make memes or magic tricks on tik tok then it'll obviously make it seem like it's not a big deal or that you're personally insulting the audience's intelligence which gives the opposite result

Stopped smoking a few months ago completely by my own will. No ad, no facts, no experienced adult can change your mind. You have to want it yourself through real life realizations, same as drugs. Additional things can help but YOU have to want it. Period.

the "if you like anxiety, you'll love depression" one was a strong meme at my middle school for sometime, and it did nothing to stop kids from vaping

The anti smoking ads that was the girl peeling her skin to get cigarettes scared the shit out of me.

I remember when I was 10 I was watching a Minecraft KZfaq video and an add plays beforehand. It had a woman in it with a vocalizer because her throat was destroyed because she smoked. There wasn’t anything flashy, they weren’t any memes, just someone who was hurt and scared by smoking. That video instantly made me never want to smoke. Kids aren’t stupid. Tell them what will happen and they will listen.

As someone apart of the young people who have been affected by not only vaping but by weed, I think truth also needs to talk more about how most kids who are addicted to these have parents who smoked when they were young and how that also fucked them up at a young age. Because shits so common that it’s insane

The first anti smoking and vaping campaign I ever saw was the one about the lungs guy that were way smaller than it’s family. And each ad the lungs got super injured.

i remember the old anti smoking ad where the girl literally *peeled the skin off her face* and now it’s “hey there’s a guy dancing in a costume... so stop smoking”

As much as they scared my childhood, The Real Cost ads are actually good and take themselves seriously for the most part. Like I’m pretty sure people remember that commercial where the lady ripped off her skin. As weird as they are, they are more effective than Truth. So u gotta give them that.

started when i was 14. im now 22 and yeah...i regret it. ive been close to quitting a few times. trying again now and this time is it. i was at 5.0%(50) nic and i made a big jump down to 3.0%(30) nic. next is 1.5%(15). ive done this method before and got down to 0.3%(3) nic before i "relapsed" i also completly quit vaping for a few monts and used zyn pouches but eventually i went back to vaping but my lungs felt amazing for a few months

My favorite is the "I've been smoking for years and there ain't nothin wrong with me" people who are constantly coughing up their lungs lol

The most insulting/ revealing thing is, that the 'truth initiative' executives actually believe that the youth only cares about memes and tiktok dances. This couldn't be further from the truth. Young people are more political than ever before. Showing how manipulative, cynical and racist big tobacco is, is a great move and they really should go way further than that. Great video Eddy, beautiful knees!

Why don’t they just do those ads with the homeless guys who have voice boxes spouting out facts bout cigarettes, those scared the shit out of me.

As someone who started smoking cigarettes at 13, I cannot agree more with the sentiment "I would regret it at 22". I have been a smoker for 11 years now and it feels legitimately impossible to quit.

I think another big thing for anti-smoking campaigns would be to inform kids about other possible stress relievers or mood stabilizers. I started smoking at 14 and got hooked because it helped with my mood swings and with my intense stress. It’s been maybe 5ish years since then and I’ve only gotten worse, and while I’ve learned other ways of dealing with stress and mood swings, nicotine is still a main thing in stabilizing my mood. I wish someone had taught me about grounding or meditation

As a athletic kid in my high school years I got hooked on smoking, I have struggled all through my twenties to quit. I've smoked on and off even trying vapes, chew and gum. I also went thought the dare program and got hooked on heroin at 19, they never warned us about doctors prescribing opiates. Had pain issues at 18 and got prescribed continuous amounts of vicoden and oxycodone. I had never touche a hard drug in high school till i saw that fuckin doctor. After over a decade later im finally getting back to my healthy self. Your spot on the money Eddy! I wish you were around in the early 2000's to make a video... Maybe i would have listened

The CDC anti-smoking commercials used to scare me as a kid when they played at night...like the old woman with the voice box. Shit haunted my dreams

Just watched this video again 2 years after quitting, this video truly helped me make the choice to quit

I started vaping when I got to the school house for my MOS. I decided to quit when I was told I couldn’t vape 3 days prior to a tooth removal and 12 days after. It sucked but I eventually got over the major hump.

*When your a fan of Eddys Content but you are also the magician in the Truth Ad*.....😂

I once saw a short film that had a young boy being offered a cigarette by some of his friends. He took it, then in the next shot he was a teenager at a party, smoking, when he sees a girl. Then he’s on his first date with this girl and there’s a full ashtray on the table. Then he’s an adult and he’s putting out a cigarette when the woman arrives in a wedding dress. And then he’s anxiously smoking while waiting outside of the hospital room where his wife is having their baby. All these shots lasted maybe three seconds each. Now, cigarette in hand, he’s waving goodbye at his kid going to school. His wife is next to him and she takes his other hand. In the next shot they’re still holding hands and he’s in an hospital bed. There’s a doctor talking. He is bald and really pale. His wife is crying and his son is looking at him from outside the door. Then it went back to the initial shot when he is being offered his fist cigarette and a text appeared. “Would you still take it?”

once when i was in like 8th grade i think, my gym teacher started talking about the first time he had a cigarrete, and how the next day he felt really sick and was vomiting and it was just an awful experience and he never wanted to do it again. i've always disliked cigarretes, but it was very important for me to hear an actual adult speaking about his honest experience. even though he was warning us not to smoke, the conversation was very casual and you could see he was being genuine and honest, and i hope it had an impact on my other colleagues like it did on me

I’ve seen the worst people working at an arcade, there has been people who were addicted so hard we had to kick them out of the arcade on account of them trying to vape in the building. This is in a plural tense. Some of them were minors.

Can we bring back the "don't smoke" campaigns that used to scare TF outta Millennials? The people with holes in their throats? The ones who needed to be fed thru a tube? Like those campaigns actually worked.

The most succesful anti smoking ad I've ever seen was the one where someone goes up to the counter at a sketchy gas station to get a pack of cigarettes and proceeds to PULL OUT THEIR TEETH ON SCREEN WITH A PAIR OF PLYERS.

My grandma smoked from her teens into her 60s (she quit when I was a baby). She died of lung and brain cancer, and seeing her rasping for air on a hospital bed was all the anti-smoking evidence I needed to never, EVER try that shit.

I have a lot of respect for Eddie after this video. I am a teenager and kinda have to be low-key about being against vaping and smoking to fit in. Seeing someone like Eddie talk about this and bringing attention to it makes me very happy. I am so concerned when hearing that my youngest sisters classmates vape. This needs to end. Bring back the body horror anti-smoking campaigns, maybe that'll do something.

I started smoking when I was 15, always said I would never quit couse I wouldn't know what to do all the free time as a none smoker, I literally spent most of my day smoking with friends or at dorms, maybe one pack a day , I am officially 22 and I am one year smoke free, now I hate the smell of cigarette smoke 😅 I am quite proud of myself So don't give up, u can do it

The Real Cost is actually a very effective anti-smoking ad campaign. it shows real consequences of this real problem

Hey Eddy, I remember seeing this video years ago and just filing this info into the back of my head like “okay there are clearly better ways to do this.” I’m a Public Health major working on a Masters degree now focusing on health communications now!

Growing up the anti smoking ad that stuck with me was the terrifying body horror KZfaq ads where they would pay for a pack with their flesh. It was so scary and made it not feel cool

I actually teared up at the people reading the quotes. THATS powerful. I remember Truth doing things when I was a kid, where they had a commercial and everyone collaped in Time Square or something like that and it was supposed to represent how many people died every few minutes from smoking. You don't need flashy dances, this is an instance where you just need the truth. Kids are much smarter than they're given credit for.