Whether smoking cigarettes is used as a social tool to chat someone up at the bar, or a perceived way of reducing stress, tobacco use continues to be problematic in the LGBT community.
Hollywood and LGBT-centric marketing campaigns have glamorized smoking, attempting to link sex appeal with the habit. Smoking, however, continues to cause more deaths each year than HIV, alcohol, illegal drugs, car accidents, and firearms combined.
“Quit With Crush” is a campaign driven by Las Vegas-based tobacco prevention organization CRUSH, and features a video of a young gay go-getter who has come to terms with his sexuality and is feeling good about his life after years of struggle. The next logical step is quitting smoking, a habit he picked up in his less confident days. He cares about himself now more than ever, and won’t pulled down by the illnesses, like lung cancer, that cigarettes bring.
The campaign targets the habit as an especially significant problem in the LGBT community, an idea that the CDC backed up recently when they found that non-heteros smoke at higher percentages across the board.
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“Gay, bisexual and transgender men are at least two times more likely to smoke than heterosexual men,” says Malcolm Ahlo, CRUSH Program Director. “We’re hoping people across the country will share this video to draw attention to this issue affecting the LGBT community and give those thinking about quitting the nudge they need to take the first step.”
Check out the video here, in which this guy shows just how attractive giving up smoking can be:
Lvng1tor
We just got a grant to target LGBT smokers for a cessation programs. I don’t see a commercial like this being effective. Show the sagging skin, the not being able to dance all night or work out. Somehow show how bad they smell. The yellow teeth. The effects after a stroke or heart attack. How cancer really takes a life. Not some young good looking successful hot bodied JOGGER….IN LA? Really? Ya can’t say hi look how healthy and active I am but smoking is bad. Plus all of the “I think about how hard it is to be out a proud with all the people waiting to bash my head in” crap.
sanfranca1
@Lvng1tor: You are so right. The guy in this video is really hot, which only conveys that smoking isn’t really bad. They should be showing what smoking really does to you.
Billy Budd
I smoked cigarettes for 7 years. I quit in 2004 and never smoked again. I had bad breath, permanent nasal congestion, shortness of breath, low aerobic capacity, smelled like a furnace (my apartment too), had yellow teeth and would probably have died of lung cancer if I hadn’t stopped.
Hollywood promoted the habit of smoking for decades. They made it look glamurous and sexy. Some people in the fashion industry still promote the habit of smoking.
Billy Budd
By the way, I did not use any nicotine patches or gum, no champix, no wellbutrin. I just QUIT.
QJ201
Why are PSA aimed at gay men always so bad?
“I got bullied and I smoked”
Stupid
I started to smoking for the same reason most kids do. My parents smoked.
Desert Boy
Smoking isn’t cool. It’s a disgusting habit. If you smoke, please stop. Save your health.
Ben Dover
There’s a meeting I attend monthly or so – all gay men – where I usually seem to be the only non-smoker present. There is so much coughing and hacking that a great deal of the talking needs to be repeated twice.
I’m always amused to find out their ages since they invariably look at least 15 years older than whatever it is, even if they’re only in their 30s.
@Billy Budd: GOOD FOR YOU!
Merv
The best way to get people to quit: Stigmatize it. Grindr, Jack’d, Craig’s List, etc. should have a mandatory field to specify whether someone’s a smoker or not, and an easy way to filter them out. Gay bars should have non-smokers only nights, especially since it’s harder to identify smokers since smoking has been banned in most bars. Smokers are losers, and they should be made to feel the scorn of the rest of the gay community.