Just about everyone who has cable TV has seen a commercial from TheTruth.com, those who don’t have more then likely seen a video clip on the internet, like the one below. TheTruth.com started as an anti-smoking campaign in 1997 in Florida and went national 2 years later. To date they have brought to light many thought disturbing and thought provoking commercials on the effects of smoking as a way to educate, if not scare off people from doing so. According to information from the Wikipedia.org on TheTruth, they have

been criticized by some viewers for the manipulative quality of their ads. Some feel that Truth’s campaigns are rather ineffective, as many of their ads focus on satire, which some see as potentially too subtle for convincing advertising. It is also thought by some that the campaigns are alienating and self-righteous.

As someone who does not smoke and has been straight edge for the last 14+ years now, I’m glad these sorts of topics are finally getting press coverage. These types of in your face commercials bring out the absolute worse in this nasty addiction, but some of them may be going to far. My own mother has been smoking for nearly 40 years now and they are just another commercial to her, and while children tend to be the most malleable, I�m not always sure these scare tactics will work effectively on them.

This guerilla campaign consists of ice sculptures resembling pregnant women with plastic babies embedded in their bellies placed on street corners which, throughout the day, melt away leaving only the baby. A placard next to the sculptures reads, “Over 30 children lose their moms to tobacco every day.”