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Hard-Line Tobacco to Moderate Alcohol

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Watching a cigarette ad illustrates the meaning hyperbole: that next puff will kill you. Well, it probably will not but, judging from the ad, it sure seems that way. Anti-tobacco ads take what I would call a hard-line stance on smoking: no one should ever smoke a cigarette, ever. To illustrate this, anti-tobacco ads have featured people with lung cancer who are usually on respirators and, quite literally, on their last legs. In every case, the smokers express regret about their foolish life decisions and how smoking has hurt their loved ones. The ads seem to be designed for new smokers who come out of high school and college. The most recent graphic ad of note features a doctor about to amputate a smoker’s foot due to gangrene. How gangrene relates to smoking and nicotine consumption, based on the ad, is a mystery.

According to the American Cancer Society, over 200,000 Americans will contract lung cancer this year, the vast majority of which will be due to smoking (figures on the number of Americans who will contract gangrene due to lung cancer are currently unavailable). While the consequences and problems created by smoking can be devastating, they cannot possibly be worse than problems created by alcohol consumption. Again, according to the American Cancer Society, about 20,000 Americans will contract liver cancer this year, the majority of which from alcohol, a figure which obviously pales in comparison to those who get lung cancer.

However, unlike cigarette use, alcohol consumption brings with it a myriad of other problems that affect more than just the user. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, more than one million people will be injured this year due to drunk driving. In addition, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice, approximately 35 percent of all violent crimes and over two-thirds of domestic disputes in the U.S. are related to alcohol and … well, I could go on but statistics are not even necessary for college students to understand that drinking, at least in the short term, has far more harmful effects than smoking. How many times have you missed class with a nicotine hangover? Or perhaps gotten into a fight with a good friend after smoking a six pack of cigarettes?

Yet, ironically, anti-alcohol advertisements do not really actively target consumption as an all-or-none situation. Rather, these ads act in a more moderate fashion by targeting specific alcohol-related habits that are likely to harm others or the self. For instance, we are told, in no uncertain terms, not to drink and drive. Or, we are indoctrinated with my favorite line included at the end of every single beer ad: “Please remember to drink responsibly.” The only time anti-alcohol takes the hard-line is when the alcoholic is at the precipice of the abyss and not before. However, for the majority of the time, alcohol in moderation is the norm.

So, which method, hard or moderate, works better on college students, likely the primary target of the advertisements? Of course, we cannot know for sure (confounding variables and all that junk). Nevertheless, according to several studies, smoking is on the rise among college students. For instance, a Harvard Medical Study (albeit in 2000) estimated that a whopping 47 percent of college students had tried smoking cigarettes that year. This has to be viewed as a failure for hard-line anti-tobacco, as its goal is to have people never smoke, not just “smoke responsibly.” Meanwhile, again according to the Bureau of Justice, drunk driving is down among all age groups, including for people 20-30 years of age (that’s right, us!). And, as Cornell is so proud to point out to incoming freshman, consumption of alcohol among college students has in fact decreased markedly over the past 25 years.

Perhaps anti-tobacco should take a lesson from all this: people will tune out a message if it is too extreme. Anti-alcohol learned this the hard way through the failure of prohibition. The harmful consequences of smoking are simply too far down the road for students to take them seriously. Rather, anti-tobacco would be better suited to attack specific instances of smoking and tone down its overall “never try something that is legal and that about a quarter of the population actually enjoys” approach. Banning cigarettes in restaurants (thank God) is probably a good start. By attacking the small concerns, the larger issue will be dealt with.

On a side note, and perhaps my unconscious impetus for writing this article, I will be turning 21 a week from today. If you see me at the bars, come join me for a beer. I will, of course, be drinking responsibly.

Gregory Wolfe is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at gwolfe@cornellsun.com. It Matters Not, But... appears alternate Fridays.

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