• by John Gaffney , May 29, 2002

Smoking Riffs.No.Non-Smoking Riffs: Now this is an argument worth having. Are anti-smoking campaigns effective? Are the softballs launched by the tobacco industry more or less effective than the shockers put up by the American Legacy Foundation? First of all, I think the problem lies in the goal of each campaign. I don't think you can convince someone to abstain from doing something through advertising. You can educate, cajole, tickle, crack up, make fun and encourage, but I don't think ads can stop someone from a behavior. The anti-smoking campaigns regardless of who crafts them, need to focus on education of the potential dangers of smoking. You read the results of that anyway you want. Second of all, this is a great argument. If planners and buyers are mindful of the debate here, we can all learn about the effectiveness of advertising to the teen and young adult market. We can learn about ineffective tactics and strategies. We can hopefully discover effective tactics and strategies. This argument is about effectiveness of advertising, at its core. At another level it is about how to address a critical health problem. But as long as the debate is focused on what works and doesn’t work, it's a good debate. When it gets into the sincerity (or lack thereof) on the part of the tobacco industry, it loses interest for me. Let the tobacco industry, Philip Morris included, spend their money on anti-smoking ads. Let them try to get it right. And the Legacy Foundation can stay with their more morbid approach. Sooner or later, I think they're both going to need to change their tune........

Evening News Riffs: Wouldn’t it be cool if all this "new generation" of evening news talk included addressing the multicultural audience? Taking nothing from the professionalism of Brian Williams and Peter Jennings, I'm not sure the future of network anchors has to look like a J. Crew catalog. A more multicultural approach is more realistic and opens up new advertising opportunities for more brands and services........

Anna Nicole Riffs: E! has announced the buxom supermodel/golddigger will be its first new reality show wannabe. Is there a camera in the……..no, I can’t do that.