A Message to the COPD Community

One ad was certainly disturbing to me. . . but in a good way. It's the woman telling her story of having smoked since she was 17 and now wanted smokers to know that if they choose to continue to smoke "they may find their freedom only extends as far as their oxygen tube." It got my attention. . . I'm stage 4 and on O2 24/7. I appreciate the knock up the side of my head!! After denial, anger and depression I'm ready to take control of my quality of life. I know, for me, this PSA was the kick in the butt I needed to take control of what is the rest of my life.
I can't speak for anyone else.
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The most current ad that I see frequently (we really don't have a choice if you are watching TV) is of Becky and concludes with the 'their freedom only extends as far as their oxygen tube.' This is inaccurate..... The visual used gives the impression that you are stuck in your house with your oxygen connected to a concentrator. The COPD community continues to work hard to encourage people to use their portable units (POCs) and get out and about and stay active!!! This is a very poor advertisement, the graphics and music sound like a death sentence and I think it should be removed.
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I take a bit of a different view of these advertisements. These have nothing to do with educating people about COPD in any way, they are ads in a continuing series targeting smokers and suggesting the many health impacts that smoking may have on people over time. They have shown people who have had various cancers and those that have had heart problems and have lost limbs as a result of smoking also.

In addition the one with Becky on oxygen while it shows the dark side of giving in to COPD there are people in our community that are likely similar to Becky. We don't know what her level of severity really is even though she uses that outdated term of "end stage" We don't know what flow level of oxygen she requires, whether she has access to a POC, her financial condition or anything else. While we desire to show the world that there can be a good life after diagnoses it depends on many factors not the least of which is a persons financial condition and severity.

Take these ads for what they are......anti smoking ads and understand it is not the advertisers responsibility to promote living well with COPD, that is our responsibility and the responsibility of the foundation and our doctors, nurses and therapists.

Hell, truth be told if all of us had been exposed to such messages years ago many of us may have quit smoking sooner and might have had less impact on our lives than is the case now.

The important thing is how we take care of ourselves, support others, put effort into education and research and move forward rather than dwelling on a Madison Avenue approach to reducing the use of tobacco.
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