Quit Smoking Or Face Foot Amputation
A confronting new quit smoking advertisement called ‘Amputation,’ detailing the relationship between smoking and gangrene, hits Australian television screens nationally tonight.
The disturbing television advertisment is set in Ryde Hospital, Sydney, and features a man about to have his swollen infected foot surgically removed. A pen has been used to mark the point of incision just below the knee. The nurse checks the surgical equipment, including a bone saw.
The surgeon turns to the camera and says, “Every time you inhale tobacco smoke, toxic chemicals go into your bloodstream and travel to every part of your body. That’s why this smoker has gangrene. I want you to think of what’s happening here every time you look at your cigarette pack… every time.
The advertisement focuses on the amputation of a gangrenous foot caused by peripheral vascular disease (PVD), following shocking new data from The Cancer Council Victoria revealing almost 3 out of 4 of smokers do not believe smoking causes gangrene, a serious side effect of PVD. PVD occurs when the arteries that carry blood to your legs or arms become partially or totally blocked by the build up of fatty material on your artery walls, and more than 15 Victorians are diagnosed with PVD every week. Smoking causes 40% of PVD in men and 34% of PVD in women in Australia and smokers are two and a half times more likely to develop PVD than someone who has never smoked.
Quit
Executive Director of Quit, Mr Todd Harper, said although smoking causes many diseases other than lung cancer, the data illustrates that many smokers are still in the dark when it comes to the health risks of smoking.
“While people are generally aware that tobacco smoking is harmful, many still underestimate the extent of the danger relative to other lifestyle risks. When you smoke toxic chemicals go into your bloodstream and travel to every part of your body so there is really no area that is immune from damage caused by smoking.”
Mr Harper said that graphic health warnings on tobacco products are essential to ensure smokers receive regular information on the harms of smoking, and that the tobacco industry so far seemed to be deliberately stalling their introduction.
“The tobacco industry has been unforgivably slow to introduce new warnings. Every single day they continue to delay the new warnings, they are jeopardising the health of any smoker who may have been inspired to quit after seeing the graphic images including the image highlighting PVD.”
Mr Mark Westcott, a Vascular Surgeon at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne said smoking is the number one risk factor for PVD, and over 80% of people with PVD affecting the lower limbs are either smokers or ex-smokers.
“People who smoke are likely to worsen their symptoms of PVD, and as a result increase their risk of amputation. Compared to smokers, people who quit smoking have less severe pain when walking and are less likely to develop pain at rest. They live longer, respond better to treatment, and are less likely to require amputation. Quitting smoking will reduce your risk of developing PVD and the longer you have quit, the lower your risk of developing symptoms of PVD.”
Mr Westcott said other risk factors for PVD include diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol levels, and noted that if you have more than one of these risk factors, your risk of PVD increases.
Credits
The ‘Amputation’ advertisement, produced by The Campaign Palace/Red Cell, is part of a new national quit smoking campaign that has been developed in collaboration between state and territory smoking and health programs.
Mr Harper said the aim of the campaign was to motivate and remind smokers to quit, and that a n important part of this campaign is making sure that smokers know that they can get professional help to quit by phoning the Quitline on 13 QUIT (13 7848).
Director for the Amputation spot was Steve Pasvolsky at Film Graphics. Sound was designed and music was composed by Alex Gomez and Barry Stewart at Sound Reservoir.
Quit Smoking Ad Online
The ad is available to view online at Quit as an 11.2 mb mpg video and a 1.36 mb mpg video. The FAQ pdf file at Quit explains that all people in the clip are actors, although staff at Ryde Hospital provided support.
Quit features anti-smoking television advertisments on its site, all the way back to black and white spots from 1971.
Neighbouring Posts
« « Toyota Prado in Ice Sculptures | Pink Targets Stupid Girls » »
Posted in Inspiration, TV Ads Cinema and Online Videos
Loading ...
(4.92 out of 5)
Powerful ad! Nice job in video presentation, and great job in getting the message out in a clear way.
Thanks!
They just sprung this ad on my wife and I in the middle of the NY Jets/NY Giants preseason football game. How idiotic. It’s purely for shock value. Neither of us smoke, why do I need to be subjected to this garbage? As a former Veterinary Technican, I have seen my share of gore. However, it really shocked my wife. I can only imagine if we had children. Of course, children are the aim, aren’t they? They’re supposed to freak out on parents that smoke, and turn them in like good little members of a police state, is that it? If tobacco is so horrible, BAN THE PRODUCT. At the very least, our wonderful governments should stop profiting off of it through taxes. Whatever you do, save this holier-than-thou, shock-film in the middle of my sports. It’s no different than a spoiled child opening his mouth to show masticated food or chasing his little sister with a dead bird. Shame on you.
I also saw this ad this week for the first time during a football game, and I wanted to say thank you to all those people who worked to get it on the air in the US. It is the first anti-smoking ad I’ve seen that actually demonstrates the harm smoking does to a person. Excellent job to the producers, the director, and the politicians that had the gumption to put this ad on the air.
Thank you for posting that ad. I have now been quit for 17 days – the longest ever in 55 years of smoking. When I got PVD and asked what it was, my doctor told me to Google it!! I didn’t find this and kept smoking.
I’ve been smoking for nearly 6 years now and I don’t believe this commercial for a second. Frankly I’m sick of these graphic commercials. It was bad enough watching the ones with the Hispanic man who has a tracheotomy and can’t go swimming anymore. These commercials are all just another scare tactic to try to convince people to quit smoking. Smokers will smoke 1) regardless of the price of cigarettes, 2) Even though they are fully aware of the health risks, 3) It’s not easy to quit (I’ve tried and failed several times) 4) No matter how graphic a TV commercial is to try to convince them to stop.
What disturbs me is that these commercials are show during prime time when young children could be watching TV. No child should have to see these commercials. Hell anyone under 14 probably shouldn’t see them. I for one say stop these ridiculous and disgusting commercials. They’re ineffective and could easily upset or scar a child for life upon viewing them. Big brother’s scare tactics don’t scare me. I’m an educated adult and if I choose to make an adult decision such as smoking (which I already did 6 years ago) I will.
People die from drunk driving related accidents and alcohol poisoning all the time but have you ever seen a graphic commercial about alcohol? I know I haven’t… For the love of God please leave smokers alone and stop trying to scare us.
This is ridiculous. why do we not have anti FAT ads on TV, why does our govrenment not push for companies to solve the FAT problem in America… Why do public schools still offer awful daily lunches, and little to no physical education, why is the presidential fitness challenge a joke? No one cares about fat people other than fat people, but it is more of an epidemic than smoking. The only reason smoking is targeted, is so the government can say, “We tried, they didn’t listen” and so the tobacco companies can say “We were responsible” which is both a line of BS. I am a smoker. Fatty build up comes from lack of exercise PERIOD. True many smokers are not physically fit. I run 3 miles a day and still smoke go figure. Aside from that, provide us reasonable health care prices and I might quit. But please don’t preach to me like you are better than me for not smoking…
hi i am doing a project on gangrene for school and i was wondering how smoking cuases it…
Stop scaring people!!!
This commercial is disgusting and it shouldn’t be on tv.
Why don’t they make a commercial of what eating junk food causes… or talking on a mobile phone for hours… or drinking… or working too much because you don’t have enough money to pay the mortgage!!!
This commercial is quite the eye opener. WE associate smoking with lung disease, to hear that it affects alot more then just our lungs. We rely on our lower limbs, and once there gone, there gone. I think this is an excellent teaching tool, for prevent and intervention. I sit here and say to myself, that could be me in 10-15 years. If I keep on smoking ” Is that where I want to be”? NO!!
Wow…talk about shock value! Great ad. Of course those who smoke will most likely not believe it’s possible to get gangrene. Wake up smokers! Yes, smoking can cause poor circulation which can lead to gangrene. Get your head out of the sand before you get a smoking related illness. Yes, you will suffer sooner or later. Have lost a relative to lung cancer and another relative has emphazema.
How long did it take for that foot to get in that horrible state? Seems like the patient must have ignored his doctor’s advice and his own common sense for quite awhile. The message of the ad is:”if you smoke, you’ll get your foot chopped off.” Reminds me of the frying egg/brain on drugs ad. Laughably misleading.
I like this commercial!… I’ve been smoking since I was 12 years old. I am now 24 and feeling the affects of smoking. I’ve read some of the comments that people have left. Some are not too pleased with the fact that their children might see the commercial and get scared. Big deal!!! Wouldn’t you want kids to be scared of the affects of smoking??? Or, are u just bothered at the fact that your kids would be constantly reminding you of how stupid you are for smoking??? I really wish that there was commercials like this back when I was 12 so I wouldv’e totally avoided smoking! I have a 14 year old sister and suprisingly her and her friends don’t smoke. (when i was 14 everyone was starting to smoke) she is so much more educated about the affects of smoking because of the “disgusting” advertising. Another comment i read was a woman saying that “scary commercials” like this one is inaffective. She made it seem as if smoking was a smart decision (”adult decision”). Lady, who are you trying to convince??? I’m a smoker as well and I tell myself everyday that I made such a stupid decision! I know first hand that quitting is hard but that doesn’t mean that i’m gonna just give up on trying to quit and tell myself that it’s “okay” to smoke. Some non-smokers feel as if they shouldn’t be bombarded with these nasty commercials because it’s not their problem. guess what, how do u think our tax dollars are being spent when someone is sick with a smoke related disease??? it’s all of our problems! … My point is this, they have hiked the prices, put nasty pictures on the packs and now show disgusting commercials. I for one won’t quit just because i saw the commercial but atleast it shows me more about the affects of smoking and that will help me more in the long run to my success of quitting. I beleive kids need to know the harsh reality of smoking before they even think about starting this filthy habbit. I would also like to add that I would be the happiest person in the world if cigarettes were BANNED!!!
I am really addressing this to the ad about smoking and lung cancer…I don’t know if this is the right place to reply. My sister recently died from lung cancer. Yes she was a smoker…but not for a while. The ad I am referring to seems to blame the person for getting sick. I found it so disturbing…bad enough that someone has to get this disgusting disease which has no cure, but to make them feel that it’s their fault…very cruel.
I realize that the lung cancer was probably caused by smoking, but think about it…when my sister was puffing away years ago, the advertisers were glamorizing smoking!
None of the smokers knew then that it could lead to these diseases.
I appreciate that your goal is to stop people from smoking so they don’t get these diseases, but PLEASE consider someones feelings that it’s too late for!
Thanks, KM
How many people get their legs amputated in a given year due to smoking? The problem with these commercials is they don’t provide all of the facts, but lean heavily on one or two, sometimes distorting them, and ignoring the rest of the facts. I can’t believe any of them. Look at that anti-drug commercial that implied that the “engineer of the train admitted to smoking marijuana before the train wreck”. At the time, the news said that particular engineer had nothing to do with the train wreck.
Many of these commercials border on being libelous (sp?) and slanderous. Apparently, the lawyers look these commercials over closely to make sure they won’t result in lawsuits. Scarier yet, the general population (sheep) believe what they see and hear, and the commercials feed a witch hunt against drugs and tobacco. Isn’t enough that smokers have to stand outside in the cold or rain if they want to smoke in public places? Should we start throwing rocks at smokers, too?
I am a former smoker of 30 years I agree that smoking is a health hazard to all. But, these gross commercials are not going to get people to stop smoking.
It is overkill!
We all know people that have smoked all their lives and live to a ripe old age. We also see many people that contract all sorts of maladies that have never smoked.
Dont think for one minute that this is just to scare you, I have smoked for 35 years and just found out I have PVD, My legs hurt so bad I cant hardly walk,I am not getting enough oxygen in my legs. I quit smoking the day I had my dopler done and the pain has subsided, You better listen,because it is true, I would rather have my legs than smoke anyday, Wouldnt you???
more smoking pictures
Children should be subjected to these sorts of images on television. Children, in the eyes of tobacco executives, represent the next generation of smoker. Once they get to a certain age, the tobacco industry practically falls over themselves to try and persuade children to buy cigarettes and get it into their heads that smoking is harmless. As adults we know that smoking is not harmless, but children, provided they are brought up in a knowledgeable and wise household, don’t. That is what makes them easy targets for the tobacco industry. People should not level any sort of criticism towards these ads. Fact of the matter is, they are there and for a reason. My feeling is that if someone doesn’t take firm action against the tobacco industry and save the world’s children in the process, the problem will persist, these ads will remain and the shock value will increase as more inventive ways are used to hammer home the message.
ok if your a smoker you reallly need to stop because im in science and learning about all of this and its not if you keep doing itQ!!1
someof you may have familys so you need to stop if you want to play with them and do all of the activites that you would normally do with them, you want be able to help them grow up.
i hope you think about it!
amber.
STOP SMOKING!!!! it is very bad for you and me and my friend amber think it is discusting having your foot amputated beacuse of it.
You shouldn’t have to go through all of that just because you like to smoke.
Why would you do it any way????!!!
I just think you should STOP NOWWWW!!!!
thanks,
love kyla xoxo
this commerical if trying to get people to quit. NOBODY IS TRYING TO SCARE YOU!! THEY ARE TRYING TO HELP YOU. obviously people who smoke are killing themselves.soon you people will see the effects and dont say that the doctor didnt tell you so. and i love the way that smokers try to cover for themselves and switch the topic to alcholics.=) it is so funny because they dont want to hear the truth about what would happen. They are so clueless.
Excellent, thanks!
Honestly I am in favor of these type of advertisements because frankly cigarette smoking isn’t something to be taken lightly when it comes to the effects it has.
Of course not everyone is going to develop every single disease that is known to be exacerbated or better yet caused by cigarettes, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be aware of every one of them. I am a medical transcriptionist for a hospital and I can honestly say almost every one of the transcriptions I get that are of someone who smokes have peripheral vascular disease or some type of heart-related ailment. Not every one of them require amputations, but that doesn’t mean that these diseases shouldn’t be known about. Simply put, you could go around and ask people if they knew that cigarettes cause cancer and almost everybody knows this, but how many people know that it causes peripheral vascular disease or better yet even know what it is? The point being is if people were aware of all the things smoking cigarettes causes, they would’ve never taken the habit up in the first place. I wasn’t aware of a lot of it until I went to college for the transcription. Before that, I used to randomly smoke a cigarette ever so often for the ‘lightheaded’ feeling, as I’m supposing a lot of people start off this way before becoming addicted. Lets just say once I learned a thing or two, I not only never will touch a cigarette again, but I loathe them.
So pretty much I think these so called ’scary’ images that are implicated in these ads are definitely a good thing. Smoking cigarettes should be emphasized in a ’scary’ manner because of what it does to you down the line. The effects of cigarettes can be nasty looking and that is the point. Cigarettes shouldn’t be appealing, they’re nasty and the effects of that should be shown. Of course not everyone is going to be effected by it and quit, but if it helps some, I say its totally worth it.
I also want to comment on those that say ‘people live to be old and a decent age and they smoke’. First off nobody is the same, everyone has different reactions to anything in general, so not everyone is going to definitely get this or that, but what is failed to be mentioned is what problems these ‘aged’ individuals had to face due to the habit of smoking. Trust me, most that have a lifelong smoking habit aren’t enjoying it, especially at an older age. Most are hauling around an oxygen tank, hacking and coughing, probably are sick often and suffer from a number of different problems and diseases due to their cigarette habit. Had these older individuals who lived these so called ‘ripe age’ long lives not have smoked, they more than likely would’ve had less than half to none of the diseases and problems they had to suffer through due to smoking and would’ve lived a lot longer. Of course people develop problems and get diseases that don’t smoke, thats a part of life and aging, but to add to the list making the rest of your life more difficult, painful, and a lot less comfortable by smoking, what is the sense in that? Simply, those that take up for cigarettes are ignorant and that isn’t to be taken in an insulting way, but in a lacking knowledge sort of way. Nothing good comes from smoking cigarettes period.
I found it sad how people made the comments about it scarring and traumatizing their children. I highly doubt its going to traumatize a child, maybe scare them because they’re not used to seeing gross looking photos, but not traumatize. What makes this a good thing is it will scare the child to realize how bad the effects of smoking can be.
The only problem with that ad, is that it worried me so much that i had to go outside and smoke a cigarette in order to calm down.
Seriously, i am planning to quit, because smoking makes me feel polluted and tired, it also makes me smell bad all the time, so it is not as glamourous as it looks in old movies.
in order to help you quit, you have some effective antidepressants and anticonvulsants on the market, such as Wellbutrin and Topamax (which also helps some people stop drinking). if you use one of those on top of nicorette gums or a patch, you should be able to stop. Also, be careful with drinking alcohol while you are trying to quit, since it will trigger a relapse.
In the meantime, if you feel that you have to smoke, i suggest smoking only cigarettes made by companies that use only pure tobacco and pure paper with no additives whatsoever, like Nat Sherman or certain older Turkish cigarettes. When you put one of their cigarettes down in an ashtray, it stops burning. The big tobacco companies put tons of additives in theirs, so that they burn by themselves, so that you use more of them, and they make more money. So, do not give them that satisfaction.
It is true. My uncle went to his Podiatrist & he will be in a wheel chair in a few years, if he is still alive. He is 50 & will lose his legs due to smoking.