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http://thetruth.com/ is the (I assume government-funded) shock marketing campaign involving, in the last two commercials I have seen, seemingly severed body parts in trash cans and baby dolls (of unknown composition- could have been bombs) encased in ice.
Both of these ads film the astonished responses of people in public places.

Let's assume that the ad agency alerted the police that there weren't, in fact, severed body parts in trash cans- that it was all guerrilla marketing. Let's assume that the marketers also provided adequate proof that the dolls weren't bombs. But the passersby wouldn't necessarily assume this, and wouldn't necessarily see that it was advertising. How many calls were made to 911? How many resources were wasted?

It's possible that bombs could have been made to look like innocuous light-displays. Being vigilant is one thing. Charges of terrorism and hoaxes, a payout of two million dollars, heads rolling- that's something else. There are few similarities between these lights and bombs. The police acted as they should have- tested something out of the ordinary. The case might even be made that they could not be sure that some weren't decoys (lights) while others were bombs. But at some point along the line it must have seemed worth considering that they should turn their attention back to the cars, trucks, trash cans and suitcases (for the consideration of volume if nothing else) - especially if the lights blow up like lights and not like bombs.

What would have happened if these had merely been fans, without a corporate scapegoat? Would the charges have gone further?

All this uproar over some lights- the panicked view that anything and everything could potentially be a bomb. I'm never going to look at a severed arm in a trashcan the same way again.

I assume your $0.80 number comes from somewhere like so. Let's see... at $0.35 per pack in NC, and $1.50 in NY, that should equate to a difference of $11.50 a carton... Well, Marlboros run about $30 a carton in NC, while in NY they're closer to $70. That's difference of $40 a carton, or about 350% higher than your magic numbers show. You're obviously overlooking a staggering amount of tax. You also assume all smokers die from smoking related disease and that all smokers die after 30 years of smoking. It looks like someone is twisting the truth.

Well who would have guessed that someone as clever as you would smoke?

To be so clever yourself, you seem to overlook a lot of facts.

My original point remains the same: Berating smokers is rude. It's the equivalent of approaching someone walking their dog and professing how much you hate dogs. Learn some manners. I stand by my original statements. You are a troll. The topic is not cigarettes, it is NASA. No one mentioned cigarettes but you. You obviously would like to argue about cigarettes. Stop acting like a child or take your personal problems elsewhere. I will not argue with you any further.

"Not only does music file-swapping harm artists, but it also points to an erosion of respect for intellectual property that threatens Canada's economy and values at the core of our society,"

Can anyone tell me when it wasn't popular opinion of the older people on the planet that the 18-29 demographic threatened the "values at the core of our society"?

I think the real nauseating thing about all studies of this nature is that they have the same template. Statistic X shows that group Y engages in activity Z. Activity Z has a parallel to activity A. We are doomed! People have been screaming this crap for eternity on any number of subjects. A correlation study looks just as good as a causal study to those who don't understand logical relationships and the manipulation of statistics.

It's wierd how industries are now funding studies to use as marketing pieces instead of funding studies in order to make educated decisions. No one involved with this study really cares if it's correct or not, just if it works towards the desired purpose - which is to associate P2P users with criminals.

If someone does stand up for using P2P software because it has a lot of legal and valid uses, the inundated will retort with a "you just say that because you don't want to pay for product whatever." This is even more likely as your average citizen couldn't even tell you the nuances of P2P software. What they do know is that it is filled with spyware/adware, you can be sued by a really big corporate entity for using it, and there is now a study associating people who use it with criminals. These may be half truths, but the only half that stuck with the populace is the negative half.

There is no active opposing campaign of the same nature. The geeks may be screaming that P2P software is not evil, and they may be winning some cases relative to the point, but they are slowly losing the favor of the plebs. If we want to stop this crap from happening were going to have to accept a couple of things. We need to communicate the value of P2P to the populace using a vocabulary that they can understand and that demonstrates it has a legitimate value to everyone, not just the techno geeks. We also need to get off our high horse and play the same game the big guys do. Our refusal to use marketing techniques because we find them morally reprehensible is a crock of shit. Used correctly, there is nothing evil about it. Just look at how the truth campaign did it. And since we are a bunch of pretty smart guys, I'm sure we could come up with a study that is not only statistically correct, but one compelling as well.

If someone wants to smoke and give themselves lung cancer, that's not my problem and I really don't care unless ... they try to get the government to use my tax money to pay for their health care.

Hi Mr. Anti-Smoking. Could you please direct me to where smokers can opt out of Medicare/Medicaid taxes? Most smokers won't ever need to be treated for lung cancer, and would probably rather keep that money taken from each paycheck. Even with your biased research, the best you can do is say 1/3 of smokers will die a 'smoking related' death (Burn deaths? Give me a break). In the meantime, smokers pay taxes too. I'd be willing to wager that the 2/3 who never get a 'smoking related' disease easily pay for the treatment of smokers who do. As a matter of fact, with all the state taxes lumped on cigarettes, I can guarantee they do. So your precious tax money is safe from the smokers. Quite the opposite, our tax money is probably bankrolling your shitty ass state economy. I understand that my opinion is not a popular one, but it's based on fact, not theTruth.

Oh what a little ad money can do....

This is also the America where consumers can ignore all of the information pummelled into them, make poor consumer choices, but then amazingly they can turn around and profess a child-like ignorance, actually suing because they should be protected from their own poor judgement.

Quality and security of software is a market feature, and if the public ignores the continual security lapses of some particularly popular software, for instance, and if they accept that there will be X crashes per week, then so be it: The marketplace has spoken. We don't need anyone protecting us from ourselves, and feigning ignorance after the fact is incredibly weak.

1200 people all assemble in front of the tobbaco company's office building, and then on cue they all fall down and play dead. Looks excellent, and you can see it on the site. (Stupid flash, I can't save the Quicktime clip)

After all, according to "The Truth" ads, you can make glowing mice simply by making them smoke cigarettes. And with a name like "The Truth", it must be true, right? :)

> No, the big tobacco companies have had all of them beat for a long time now. Their products directly kill people.

If I was in the tobacco business (which I'm not) I wouldn't give a rip about who *chooses* to use my product knowing full well that it is deadly. I'm not in the business to protect the public (that's what the government and organizations like Thomas T. Melvin and The Truth are for). Cigarettes are not illegal, so if I can get you hooked at a young age I have a customer that will give me money on a weekly basis for the rest of his/her life. Makes sense to me.

If I spent my life building a hugely successful business, I think I deserve to be rewarded for my hard work. If there's one thing I learned from college, it's that hard work isn't enough. You have to step on people and back stab just to stay afloat.

You don't like that? Don't buy my product.

How many people do you know that are not aware that cigarettes are unhealthy? Not only that, but Philip Moris is now running anti-smoking ads on TV. What more could you ask from them? Since when has business been about being honest anyway?

If I spent my whole life crying and worrying about other people instead of myself, I would end up broke and probably insane.

This Flamebait was brought to you by the letters F and U, and the $ symbol.

The Net will still be created for us . . . if we work it right. At this point this article is 100% correct, AOL and MSN are enormous players that are not going to give up and can through enough money at a problem till it goes away.

Their must be some way we can change something and tip the balance of power. We just have to find the right thing. This article does feel alot like a lament but things are not over yet, they are just alot more difficult
The most important part of fighting a battle like this is educating the masses. Making them aware of what the problem is and give them ways to stop it. The masses are not aware of the many security risks that M$ has - they figure everything is like that. There should be some sort of huge publicity campaign similar to The Truth. Otherwise things are not goign to change.

I couldn't agree more. Call me sappy, but reading a story like this is a really uplifting thing for me. Everyday it seems that I wake up to a new injustice. A CIPA, a UCITA, a CPRM, a new report on money in politics ignored by M$NBC because they helped put the money there, lives ruined in a drug war, lives taken in a legalized cartel. The frustration builds until it seems hopeless -- and then it's all erased by one day in a story like this one.

Anyway, enough with the mushy stuff, I just hope I'll be first in line.

Truth is the name of Florida's campaign to keep kids from smoking. They may have spread nationwide by now; their commercials are reportedly pretty effective.

A company called "truth" (no joke) ran an ad on several major networks (quicktime movie here) with a "tobacco industry spokesperson" on it, saying that every cigarette had been recalled due to "health concerns" and that cigarettes would not be back on the shelves until there were absolutely no health risks..."because if there's two things the tobacco industry cares about, it's your health, and your trust. Thank you." The ad then flashed "april fool's" and the URL.

...be hazardous to your health. You know what's going to happen if someone attempts to compile that buggy source code, the same thing that happened during the great soda commercial. Splode!!!
(Click on Splode Soda on the following page to see the commercial, Quicktime required)

English: Fry's 30 day money back guarentee

1. What does it take to get people/organizations to produce quality work?

1. What does it take to get people/organizations to produce quality work?