Shock anti-smoking TV ads rescheduled after complaints
3/29/2007 Singapore Tan Hui Leng Singapore News (www.channelnewsasia.com) It was intended to shock, and it succeeded — so well, in fact, that a flood of complaints from parents has caused the Health Promotion Board (HPB) to reschedule the screening time of its anti-smoking advertising campaign on television. It will now only be aired from 8pm, when youngsters are less likely to be watching TV. The 30-second commercial, which first aired on all the four main language channels last week, is a graphic depiction of a woman afflicted with oral cancer. The camera zooms in on a tight shot of her face with a diseased tongue, decaying teeth and chapped lips riddled with sores. Said HPB’s chief executive, Mr Lam Pin Woon: "HPB has reviewed and revised our advertising timing and channels to minimise causing any alarm to young children." Housewife Leong Sow Chan was one of the peeved parents. Her nine-year-old daughter was so traumatised by the commercial the first time she saw it that she had a nightmare that night. "She started screaming at about 3am and woke my husband up. He had to attend to her," said Madam Leong. While she still does not think the commercial is in appropriate taste, she admitted that it "definitely turns me and my non-smoking family off. We are so disgusted we either switch channels when the ad comes on, or look away". Indeed, the preliminary results seem to prove the power of the shock tactics. According to the HPB, since last [...]