Stop Using My Disease to Stop Smoking

As part of its 2015 "Tips From Former Smokers" campaign, the CDC aired an anti-smoking ad that portrayed ostomies as punishment for a bad habit. This turned out to be part of a larger campaign that took advantage of diseases and complications tied to much more than smoking, twisting life-saving and preventative medical care into something akin to torture. Case in point, an ostomy isn't simply what you get for smoking your way to colorectal cancer. Ostomies also save thousands living with severe, incurable Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD). I'm a nonsmoker living with IBD, and I work in advertising. When I saw the CDC ad, which capitalized on the fears of those living with a colostomy bag, I didn't think of smokers. I thought of the people I had connected with since my diagnosis who wake up every day and do their best to put aside any shame they might feel -- or be made to feel -- about their ostomy because it's the reason they're able to get out of bed. As someone who works in advertising, I knew this video wasn't just a one-off. It was part of a $68 million dollar campaign created to scare smokers and the general population with nightmarish health conditions that may arise from smoking. Shaming the millions of nonsmokers living with these painful conditions was an oversight they made in the name of a larger and, it would seem, more important cause. Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis (UC) are two conditions characterized as IBD. Crohn's usually causes inflammation in the...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news