i don’t mind that they raise taxes on tobacco. what i DO mind is that, that extra money should be going towards helping smokers quit!! why not put ads on tv saying, “taxes have gone up on tobacco and the money is now there to help those who need help to quit. simply call your local American Cancer Society and they will provide you all the means free of charge, whatever it takes. We are on your side!” They would find that far more effective then these commercials that simply are ignorant and insulting. Everyone I know, wants you to quit and quiting is a good thing. But the prices to quit (using any means) are higher than the tobacco in some areas. First they get us hooked (if your from the 50′s thru the 80′s era especailly) talking about how cool it is,,,, now it’s bad, agreed, then they tax the heck out of us for smoking, insult us, degrade us for it, but don’t provide the means to the end. HellllllllOOOOOOOOOoooooooo!!! wake anti-hitlers. do the fracken math. you want to lower health insurance costs? have healthier people? included a smoke free invironment? then support us through quitting. duh. use tobacco taxes to pay for the smokers way out instead of insulting us and treating us like we have the pleague. the USA is getting more and more communistic every day. you can get a ticket for tossing out a biodegradable item from your car. but it’s ok to litter the road sides with grave crosses and garbage to decorate them. how well would that go over if a loved one died in a hospital bed and you went there every year to put a cross and flowers, etc over the bed they died in? i’m sure i don’t need to draw that picture any clearer. i like what was said about drunk drivers in comparison to the smoking commercials. where they only show the drunk getting pulled over. why NOT show all dead people he/she killed because they were drunk. if your going to get disgusting about tobacco commercials, then hey, lets go all the way and get totally digusting with everything else. by the way, did you know that most the taxes on tobbaco go towards the recovery of alcohol and drug addiction? (tobbaco being excluded from the drug catagory). hum, imagine that. My smoking a cigarette and driving is not going to Kill someone on the road, and i won’t go rob someone just to feed my habit. so i guess it’s not as dangerous for those around me as it is made out to be. otherwise, they, (they; being the donkeys that make the rules as to how important it is to add or subtract the importance of tobbaco to the drug list) would be more willing to HELP smokers quit.

And also, It pisses me off when I have to fucking breathe in smoke when someone else is smoking. I agree with a previous poster, who wrote that smoking in the general area of a non-smoker is the equivalent of farting in their face. With the added 'benefit' of giving me fucking cancer!

Glad I got that out of my system.

In summary, if you think these commercials are "offensive" then it is because most likely because you want to hide from the truth that cigarettes are the most disgusting things ever invented. If you smoke cigarettes, you might as well be taking poison. A very slow-acting, painful poison.

Also, notice I didn't say anything about smokers, only cigarettes. As the more sane religious people say, "Hate the sin, not the sinner."

For all those people who make the argument that if it saves one life it is worth it, then I have a proposal. Why don’t we start showing commercials of kids who are in ICU’s and morgues covered in bruises and broken bones because they have been beaten by their parents. If it raises awareness for child abuse and saves even one life it’s worth it right. Or like the earlier guy said, why don’t we show condom commercials with dying aids patients. How come in the drunk driving commercials they only show people getting pulled over when the more accurate commercial would be showing all the dead bodies lying on the ground from hit and runs.

Why don’t we have anti-religion commercials since more people die fighting for mythical beings than any other cause in history. If we could save one person from religion, it would have a greater impact on the world then smoking.

Someone also has to explain to me how the cigarette taxes get increased every time there is a budget issue in a city (not a health issue but a budget issue) yet every time it’s raised their “doing it for my health”.