Shock Anti-smoking Ad Man Still Smokes Half A Pack A Day

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Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology;  Stroke;  Public Health
Article Date: 12 Jan 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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Skip Legault appears in a TV ad where he explains how he lost a leg, had various heart attacks, and a stroke, all before the age of 30 because he was a smoker. Skip, 48, told the New York Daily News that he is still a smoker.

Even though the ad gives the impression that one is invited to follow Skip out of the smoking habit, it seems to be more an ad about "Do as I say, not as I do" rather than a "Look what happened to me, don't let it happen to you" type ad.

Skip explains that the hypocrisy does not make him feel good. He says that the more he watches the commercials the sicker it makes him feel.

The makers of the ad, the Department of Health, knew Skip was still smoking when the commercial was being made, but chose to leave that detail out. However, a print ad does say "Cigarette smoking is killing Skip Legault", which is more ambiguous.

According to Skip, his friends at home do not understand why he tells everyone to give up while he himself continues puffing away. Skip says he is afraid to give up. He adds that he has survived for longer than doctors had expected.

Skip says that when he was a kid his parents caught him smoking and made him eat a whole pack of cigarettes. All that did, he says, was to make sure he never wanted to eat cigarettes again - but it had not effect at all on his desire to smoke.

Skip's smoking-related illness started when he was a child. He developed a disorder called Buerger's disease - a circulatory and inflammatory disorder that causes blood clots. When he started feeling discomfort his parents assumed they were growing pains. Before he was 30 years old he had suffered two heart attacks, a stroke and had part of his leg amputated.

-- See the article in the New York Daily News On that page you can also see the TV ad.
-- Click here to see the printed ad

Written by - Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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