Some Say Anti-Smoking Ad Too Much For Prime Time

A television ad that has made its way to the Fort Smith viewing area has many wondering if it crosses the line of being too much for prime time. It's an anti-smoking ad produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It starts out like any typical anti-smoking ad. "Twenty minutes after you stop smoking, your blood pressure decreases," the ad says. "After two days, your chance of heart attack drops." Then, it cuts to a graphic scene depicting real open-heart surgery. Arkansans have had mixed reactions. "Children are around and stuff like that," local resident Brian Kennedy said. "You don't want that showing around your kids.

I don't want it showing around my kids." Ryan Hatfield said he doesn't see anything wrong with it. "It scares the kids," he said. "Hopefully (it) keeps them away from smoking." The ad is locally sponsored by Cherokee Nation Health and started running in January. Tobacco prevention advocates weighed in, saying they, too, saw nothing wrong. "It's the truth," said Jamie Thornton, of the Northwest Arkansas Tobacco Free Coalition. Thornton said that because the tobacco industry outspends their advertising efforts in Arkansas $44 per person, per year to their $2.50 per person, per year, the tobacco prevention movement has to make a big impact with the little ad time they get. "I see pictures all the time of people with emphysema and tar on their lungs," Thornton said. "It's a very graphic, brutal disease."

The Food and Drug Administration announced in June that it was successful in its attempts to require large, graphic warning labels be put on cigarette packaging. However, several tobacco companies sued and got a preliminary injunction on the new labels. While the case is on appeal, the labels will not be on display. That's all the more reason, Thornton said, that the graphic anti-smoking ads are vital. "Every year we see a cut in our funding," Thornton said. "There's an increase in smoking rates every year, every state, every county." Some stations across the nation are choosing to only air the ads if they run after 10 p.m. That restriction is not in place in 40/29 viewing area.