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This reminds me of the "It looks just as stupid when you do it" anti-smoking poster[0], which was meant to dissuade smoking, but actually goes kind of hard. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/PropagandaPosters/comments/1suta15/...
Was working incredibly well up until vapes came along and every school kid had one.
Smoking doesn't actually look cool, but you might need to have quit before to really see it- smokers are sucking on something that's essentially unpleasant to relieve the discomfort of the first pangs of withdrawal. If you can put yourself back in that moment with honesty, and remember the hope and inevitable disappointment that this will be a 'good cigarette' ... lol that is not cool
Have to wonder what in todays world could replicate the social aspect of smoking. Something that gets people to step away from their work for a moment, keeps your hands busy and phone away and encourages people to talk to each other.
Food trucks honestly
When I was a 20-something big-4 consultant traveling weeks on end for work, I took up smoking for exactly the reasons you suggest. I had nothing to do in my down time and knew nobody, but I could sit in hotel bar with a smoke and strangers would trail over. Yep, I’m old enough to have been working when you could still smoke in hotel bars. In Monaco you could order a pack of Marlboro Reds at your dinner table back in…
But the thing is that, according to him, it was a lot. Lots of people went in and asked for the same thing, a cup of coffee and a cigarette.
Allegedly he went into smoking because he got so used to hear people saying "one cup of coffee and a cigarette, please" for so long that one day he, unconsciously, asked for the same.
This reminds me of the "It looks just as stupid when you do it" anti-smoking poster[0], which was meant to dissuade smoking, but actually goes kind of hard. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/PropagandaPosters/comments/1suta15/...
Australian anti smoking ads were a lot more effective. Showing graphic images and video of diseased foot or someone struggling to talk, coughing up blood. Was working incredibly well up until vapes came along and every school kid had one.
I guess it might have had an impact but it's hard to tell for me with the impressive mishandling of vapes and now the black market.
Instead of learning about addiction, it taught me a ton about socializing. Sharing a cigarette with a romantic interest is such a low friction way to be able to keep close enough to have a conversation, and subtly reinforce intimacy. And after I quit, I would bring a pack to any party I went to and not tell anybody until someone was asking. There was a double whammy of providing one for a stranger, and saving a friend from having to donate one.
By the end of the night, when everybody was either trying to bum one or find someone sober enough to make a run to the gas station, my reputation for both having cigarettes and not smoking made me pretty popular. It was also really nice that when people praised me for it (mildly; "that's really cool of you, man") my stock response was "yeah, no worries. I know how great it would be if someone had a Dr pepper for me when I was dry", which made a lot of people offer me my favorite soda all the time.
I still can't stand smoking, and have only had a dozen or so in the decade since then, strictly for ingratiating myself to people. But there is nothing out there like cigarettes for socializing. I'm with a lot of other commenters here in wondering how much we've lost by stigmatizing it without ever reconciling with the (trivial, in comparison) benefits.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Australian anti smoking ads were a lot more effective. Showing graphic images and video of diseased foot or someone struggling to talk, coughing up blood. Was working incredibly well up until vapes came along and every school kid had one.
Do you think they were really effective or was it more the large price hikes (which have now been undone by vapes and black market cigarettes)? I guess it might have had an impact but it's hard to tell for me with the impressive mishandling of vapes and now the black market.
While vaping has exploded, and while it isn't harmless, it's clearly safer than smoking so the current situation is still better.
Upon banning smoking in public areas, my city and the surrounding municipalities encountered an immediate and statistically significant (~10%) reduction in heart attacks.
When I was a 20-something big-4 consultant traveling weeks on end for work, I took up smoking for exactly the reasons you suggest. I had nothing to do in my down time and knew nobody, but I could sit in hotel bar with a smoke and strangers would trail over. Yep, I’m old enough to have been working when you could still smoke in hotel bars. In Monaco you could order a pack of Marlboro Reds at your dinner table back in…
A different time. I remember the first question from the host at a restaurant being "smoking or non?"
One of my favorite bars in college allowed smoking upstairs (and still does, although how many college kids actually smoke?). I really do miss having a cigarette in one hand and a frosty beer in the other.
When I was a 20-something big-4 consultant traveling weeks on end for work, I took up smoking for exactly the reasons you suggest. I had nothing to do in my down time and knew nobody, but I could sit in hotel bar with a smoke and strangers would trail over. Yep, I’m old enough to have been working when you could still smoke in hotel bars. In Monaco you could order a pack of Marlboro Reds at your dinner table back in…
Some of us are old enough to remember smoking sections on planes. (And yes it works out exactly as bad as you’d expect it … great way to past time on a transatlantic flight though!)