And now for something completely different...

[--Pete]

Hi,

But the processes by which (as you mention) smoking went from popular to unpopular wasn't just advertising. It was education.

Bull. Education is 'drink responsibly'. Education is 'this is your mind on drugs'. Education is fore-brain, it's rational, it's cold. What was done to smoking goes waaaay beyond that. The hatred engendered for smoking (and, incidentally, for smokers -- not many 'hate the sin but not the sinner') goes way beyond. It's lizard brain, it's visceral, it's passionate hatred. It is the mind set of the patriot at war, the zealot at the stake. It's based not on knowledge but on feeling.

Smart advertising can help, maybe even a lot, but it probably won't be a primary cause of change.

I think you need to study the effects of advertising. I think you are thinking billboards and loud TV hucksters. Or even something 'subtle', like product placement. But consider Sesame Street Muppet, Cookie Monster. He has been found to be both a factor in the obesity problem, and after his 'conversion' to better eating in the past decade, he has been found to have influenced the consumption of more fruit by children. And *that* is propaganda done well.

Or, but another way, I'm told avalanches tend to roll downhill, not uphill. ;)

The purpose of advertising (why are we using an euphemism -- if it is for political or social change, advertising *is* propaganda) is to define 'downhill'.

--Pete