Smoking fading like fashion faux pas, ad campaign says

The Utah Department of Health wants to see smoking in public places go the way of the zoot suit and the mullet.

The agency used a Monday fashion show featuring the bad trends of fashion's past — knee-high white patent leather go-go boots, flower-powered hippie wear and denim overalls with one unfastened strap — to launch its new anti-tobacco campaign, "What Were We Thinking?"

"Clearly we have come a long, long way in fashion," said Lena Dibble, media coordinator for the department's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program. "But more importantly, we have come a long way in knowing the dangers of smoking."

The campaign's four, 30-second television commercials seek to highlight the absurdity of past smoking trends — lighting up on airplanes, at the office and even at the doctor's office.

One grainy spot shows a doctor puffing away on a cigarette while checking a toddler's vital signs as his mother looks on, smiling approvingly. Another late '60s-themed spot takes place in an airplane where nearly everyone, including the short-skirted flight attendants, is holding a cigarette and the cabin is filled with thick smoke.

The public service announcements will begin airing this week on Utah television stations. The ads, Dibble said, aim to illustrate "just how incongruous smoking in public places has become."

Earlier this year, the Utah Legislature passed a controversial bill that will eventually ban smoking in all classes of private clubs and taverns. The law also prohibits smoking at social, fraternal and religious organizations.

"We look back now and think, 'Can you believe we used to allow smoking on planes like that?' We find it appalling to see a smoking doctor examine a child," Dibble said. "One day we'll say, 'Can you believe we allowed smoking in clubs?'"

According to the Centers for Disease Control, Utah has some 1,100 smoking-related deaths each year and incurs $273 million in smoking attributable medical costs. The Utah Department of Health estimates that 22,100 children were exposed to secondhand smoke inside the home in 2005.

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E-mail: awelling@desnews.com