Chantix advertisements and smoking cessation

From a medical perspective, Chantix (varenicline) is the gold standard in smoking cessation. It has been found to be more effective at helping smokers quit than bupropion (Wellbutrin) or nicotine replacement therapies (patches, gum). The drug is heavily advertised, so I thought I would examine how Pfizer markets Chantix.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/ws46/chantix-mark

This ad starts by introducing Mark, a real life person who smoked for 26 years but was able to quit with the help of Chantix and "support". He details how he tried quitting cold turkey and with patches, but these methods were ineffective. Pfizer is implying that Chantix is unique and more self-empowering than other smoking cessation products. The other implication also seems to be that the pharmaceutical industry is so clever that they have created a product that allows patients to restore their self control. Taking Chantix seems to be a no brainer!

Chantix, methadone, and other pharmaceutical addiction treatments assume that addiction is primarily a chemical process. Therefore, it makes sense that there could be a chemical that would interrupt this process and cure the patient. This premise is generally well received by addicts because taking a pill is much easier than addressing deep-seated patterns of behavior and negative thought patterns. The medical community also likes this because pharmacology seems to be a much more concrete science (with receptor sites and binding affinities) than psychology (with feelings and perceptions).

The end of the ad is where the legal disclaimers come in and the list for Chantix is disturbing. Nausea, sleep-walking, seizures, and allergic reactions are all mentioned as possibilities. The viewer is also advised to exercise caution when driving and to tell their doctor if they have unusual changes in thinking or thoughts of suicide. Quitting smoking with Chantix doesn't seem so easy by this point of the commercial.

While the list of horrible side effects is rolling off, Mark can be seen enjoying a glass of water at a pizzeria with his wife. The commercial closes with Mark saying, "I'm finally free of smoking." Chantix has restored Mark's ability to make free choice and now he enjoys simple things like pizza and cold glasses of water. The message is simple here: you are powerless over your smoking and you should turn to modern science to correct what is wrong with your brain. There are vague allusions to the addition of "support" to help smokers quit, but this messaging takes a back seat to a pharmaceutical solution.

An aside on Chantix and suicidal thoughts:
For several years, the FDA required a black box warning on Chantix packaging that warned that the drug should be stopped if the patient has thoughts of suicide or self-harm. The FDA required this label after reports that some smokers trying to quit with Chantix experienced these symptoms. However, after post-marketing studies showed that those taking Chantix did not have disproportionate risk for suicidal thoughts and tendencies relative to other smokers trying to quit, the label was removed. While this is good for Pfizer, it raises a disturbing point: some people become so disturbed while trying to quit smoking that they begin having suicidal ideations. Clearly addiction has a psychological component that transcends simple pharmacology. The Wikipedia entry for Chantix does a nice job on summarizing the FDA's decisions (with citations).

Hui Lin Zheng Blog #4: Representations of Cigarette Smoking

An addiction that is vastly different from how it is represented in the United States is the smoking culture in China. The Chinese are one of the heaviest smokers in the world. Smoking is associated with masculinity and is a rite into manhood. It is also essential for socializing and people who don’t smoke are often pressured into smoking to fit in. The Chinese are aware that smoking is a dangerous addiction, but the smoking culture in China is so predominant that the addiction problems are often ignored. Smoking cigarettes is considered a normal ritual in the everyday lives of Chinese people.

We can even see this culture of smoking here on campus among the international students. Many of the international students at the University smoke on a regular basis and have started smoking from a young age. They smoke to de-stress, to socialize with friends, and even during networking events.

I have three roommates who are all Chinese international students and two of them smoke cigarettes on a regular basis. To them, smoking is a casual pastime and they started smoking because they saw friends and acquaintances smoking and smoked to fit in. It is not so simple as smoking to feel like they fit in, but rather fitting in to make connections with their peers and network. And this networking is essential for finding jobs in the future. The representation of smoking is so entwined with the social culture in China that they overlook the fact it is an addictive substance. I think it’s interesting to look at a culture where cigarettes are not associated with addiction and is instead seen as a successful habit.

This article provides more information about the smoking culture in China:

https://thediplomat.com/2015/10/chinas-deadly-smoking-habit/

Smokeless Tobacco Addiction Post #4 Regan Bradley

Opioid addiction. Alcohol addiction. Marijuana addiction. LSD addiction. Cocaine addiction. Tobacco addition.

We all know and have heard of the epidemics behind numerous drugs addictions. These addictions are recognized by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). They have numerous scientific studies about the effects on the body both physically and psychologically. The American Society of Addiction Medicine states "addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry" that is "characterized by inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one's behaviors and interpersonal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response." In general, the inability to stop a particular activity even if the consequences outweigh all good.

You're a small town student. You occasionally get up to go to your class but mainly you get up each day to hang out with your friends as you drive around the empty fields surrounding your area as you listen to music and chew. It's only a few times so it won't hurt. Every once in a while is bad. It doesn't matter because you also love to lift and are a smart student. You have a career already set so you don't have to worry. The chewing will stop when you are a little older. Down the road, you notice your teeth starting to turn black as necrotic tissue and fall out. You lose your gorgeous jawline as the carcinogens begin to play their role in your gums and mandible. Now you cannot breath. You thought yesterday was your last time. In weeks you will die from an aggressive pancreatic cancer you did not know you had.

More than 3 in every 100 adults aged 18 years and older use smokeless tobacco. Any one of these people who use smokeless tobacco run the risk of becoming extremely addictive to the addictive substance. I use the stereotypical small town student because I have seen this happen to previous classmates. The effects are scarier in person. A commercial aired in an attempt to make these effects of smokeless tobacco use and addiction know. The images haunt me to this day as I see classmates and friends partake in this addictive activity. The Real Cost released this video to show what can all start with just a can of dip. This addiction is represented as disgusting and harmful in all ads I have seen. Any video or comment of social media pulls on the gross action and effects of chewing tobacco. This video is a clear example.

This common-sense mentality of not partaking in smokeless tobacco seems like a easy decision. Then why have I seen people in my own life loss to this addiction? Is the information not given early enough? Is it not representative of the worst case scenarios in order to place a fear factor in people? Do people just not care about where they will be years late? Is there no point to trying to stop what people will evidently start no matter what we say?  This all goes back to our debate about if the state is responsible for addiction epidemics. Why are these products available? How many people have to die before we start to go crazy over this addictive?

Video:

The Real Cost Commercial: "Face of Dip" (:30s version)

Source for American Society of Addiction Medicine Definition:

https://www.asam.org/resources/definition-of-addiction

Blog #4- Alcoholism in NYC

In looking around for material for this post, I kept coming across interesting ads for things like cigarettes and alcohol. The common thread between many of these ads, especially the older ones, was a focus not on the product itself, but rather on the culture which surrounds it. This got me thinking about when I lived in New York City, and how the culture there pushes constant drinking and smoking as an assumed way of life rather than an option. Media representation certainly reinforce this: shows like How I Met Your Mother show drinking as the primary social activity of young, vibrant professionals in the city, and for years virtually every representation of a professional in NYC showed them smoking. However, I noticed that it is not simply media representation that pushes a dependence on alcohol and cigarettes on residents of the city. The use of these products is woven into the day to day culture of NYC in a way that I haven't found to be true of other cities.

In New York, there is an expectation that just about everyone drinks or smokes, at least the "real New Yorkers" anyway. I noticed this idea reinforced by some very basic facts about living there. For instance, with the expected high-speed work environment that is prevalent throughout the city, smoking gives workers much needed short breaks throughout the day. When I worked at a restaurant in the village I was the only non-smoker on the staff, and I definitely felt the pain for lacking those breaks that everyone else got to take. Obviously people know that smoking is harmful to them, yet this pervasive culture makes smoking seem almost necessary to survive in the city.

On the drinking side of things, something that drove me crazy while I lived there was that all of the coffee shops closed at 5pm. All of them. Except the chain stores in Times Square. Compare that to Minneapolis, where shops open until 11pm or midnight are easy to find. The difference is the culture. In NYC, it's simply expected that by 5pm, you should be at a bar drinking, so why would they keep the coffee shops open?

The representations of alcohol and smoking in New York City as almost crucial to life are created by the culture of the city itself, not just the media. It's also very hard to pin down the source of this culture because it is so widely and deeply ingrained into so many aspects of life in the city. Of course, living in this culture leads to increased problems with addiction because mild addiction is pretty much expected! I think this shows just how sneakily representations of addiction can be inserted into culture. It isn't always blatant, like in an advertisement encouraging you to smoke. It can instead be small cultural expectations that gently push citizens in the direction of addiction.

Brent Clanfield Post #4

When looking at old cigarette and tobacco ads, they are shocking compared to what is known today. Smoking was glamorous and sophisticated. It was widely accepted and considered to even have health benefits like an easy way of losing weight. Take this ad for example. It brags about being the most used cigarette among scientists and educators. Of course you would want to do what scientists and educators do because they wouldn't do something unhealthy. You would want to be just like the guy on the ad. Suave, sophisticated, and smart like scientists and educators.

Fast forward to today. Scientists and educators would never tell anyone to smoke, and ads would not be able to make such claims. Instead, scientists have proof of the dangers of smoking and cigarette packaging has started being covered in scary, fear inducing, images to make the purchaser think twice before smoking. It shows the stark difference in how the world perceives smoking today versus back then, and the difference some knowledge about the effects of smoking can make.

Making cigarettes look cool - Blog Post 4

I’ve been watching this show recently called the Peaky Blinders which is on Netflix. It’s a pretty silly show about this gang in Birmingham who are trying to take over everything around them basically. And it’s only silly because they are trying way too hard to be very serious. But this show is really a great example of how some drugs can be really glorified in television shows. The main character in the show Thomas Shelby is the epitome of a “cool guy”, every scene with him in it basically involves some cool music with him walking in slow motion, he can never do any wrong with the decisions he makes, and he runs the family business which is now bringing in more money than ever before. And this guy is smoking a cigarette in every single scene, no kidding. Cigarette smoking in this show is glorified like I have never seen before. I even want to start smoking when I watch it even though I know I am not a fan of tobacco. But that is the image that they are getting across. The successful, badass business man is always cool, calm, collected, and encircled by cigarette smoke. It creates this amazing aesthetic of cigarettes as if they clear the mind and calm the body, but I’m telling you, if anyone smoked as much as they are showing this guy smoke, they would definitely not sound like this guy does, they would have some serious lung problems. And not only do they glorify smoking in this show, they also glorify alcohol. The family business also runs a pub which obviously sells alcohol, and everytime someones walks into a building they find the liquor and pour themselves a glass of straight brandy and down it right there. The reason why this is so glorified is because the successful “cool” people in the show never, ever get drunk off of it, yet they take a shot nearly every 30 minutes. Again it gives this aesthetic of badassery because they can hold their liquor and it shows that they are restraining their emotions of anger or frustration because they just take a shot instead. You can definitely see that if someone had never had an alcoholic drink, or a cigarette in their life that it would look quite appealing in this show. It is just another example of how easy it is to make bad things look good in a TV show or a movie.

Blog Post #4; Caitlin Barth

As it is for many of us – addiction to cigarettes has surrounded me most of my life. Personally, I do not smoke, however, I grew up around a grandpa, a grandma, and – still today – a sister would have succumbed to the small metaphorical stick. It is almost comical how something that has been advertised in the past to bring you pleasure, stress-relief, or short-lived happiness (pun intended) is slowly, sometimes quickly, killing you. So why did the industry grow in popularity… so quickly? False representations, of course. 

            Luckily, most of us in this course did not feel the pressures of smoking cigarettes as those who grew up in the 1960’s where the custom was everywhere – restaurants, airplanes, even in classrooms. The cigarette industry flourished so well because of their advertisements that led people to believe they were actually healthy by using rhetoric such as “fresh, clean, smooth, and satisfaction.” They further legitimized the act by placing doctors in their ads. 

Yes, we all have seen these ads before. Especially growing up in the time we did we learned about the cigarette corporations ability to “reel in” the consumer. Today we are lucky to be presented with much more transparency. Just the other day I heard on the radio that a cigarette company’s motto is to “get ‘em while they’re young” and how parents should be diligent to prohibit their kids to fall into the vicious cycle of smoking. Also, the companies are required to state the product causes lung cancer or other health problems.