Don’t smoke. I did. Wish I never had. LLAP
— Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) January 11, 2015
Leonard Nimoy died today from COPD – chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. Most people look puzzled when you mention that condition. My dad died of complications from that illness and pulmonary fibrosis, which is a disease that is even worse than COPD and that even fewer people know about. Nimoy blamed his illness on smoking, even though he quit 30 years ago. My dad quit 10 years ago when his first grandson was born, but it was too late for him too.
Nimoy’s tweet from January 10 is tremendously sad but I don’t think it will cause anyone to stop smoking. It’s hard to talk about this habit with people who smoke, partially because most conversations come across as scolding. People don’t listen to you if you are wagging your finger at them and telling them they’re doing it wrong.
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Recently, I heard two people talk about smoking in a different way: a comedian and a philanthropist. What both people said and how they said it made all the difference. The keys are humor, honesty, and authenticity. Those are critical components for any health message designed to change an individual’s personal choices.
John Oliver provided the macro example of how to talk to smokers and potential smokers. His “Tobacco” news story explains how cigarette makers are suing countries – Australia, Togo, Uruguay – over new packaging rules. The cigarette companies don’t like the disgusting pictures of diseased lungs, rotten teeth and weird eyeballs (skip to 6:28 to see what I mean) on cigarette packs. Oliver has a compromise for tobacco companies who want to revive the Marlboro Man and countries who want to warn people about the risks of smoking: Jeff the Diseased Lung in a Cowboy Hat.
“We are offering Jeff to you, Phillip Morris International, to use as you wish, put him on your billboards, put him on some ads. And, don’t be mad, we’ve already started doing that for you. This is an actual billboard we have put up in Uruguay of Jeff the Diseased Lung,” he said.
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Oliver printed t-shirts and sent them to Togo. His staff also built a diseased lung mascot costume and invited kids to come and dance around with it. You have to watch it to appreciate it. Skip to 17:12 for the mascot appearance. Of course, there is a hashtag as well “JeffWeCan.” My two sons – 6 and 10 – watched this 20 minute segment with me (we had 4 snow days last week – I was getting desperate) and have talked and joked about Jeff ever since. This is the way to talk about smoking with humor and honesty. We have to talk about health and healthcare decisions with this kind of energy and detail and creativity.
The second fresh example of how to talk about smoking was in a more personal setting: at a city meet up about a new asthma project. A philanthropist spoke about her own health experiences and how they have shaped her civic work. Christy Brown is the founder of the Institute for Healthy Air Water and Soil (full disclosure: I work for the Institute as part of this asthma project). She was speaking at a meet up about Air Louisville – a new community project focused on asthma. Brown’s husband – Owsley Brown II – died in 2011 at age 68 and his wife blames his early death on his lifelong breathing problems. At the meet up she talked about how her husband struggled with colds and breathing problems his entire life. She also mentioned briefly that she herself smoked.
“When I moved here, I smoked, and I liked it,” she said.
Brown is a Democrat and a serious philanthropist. She supports everything from the Festival of Faiths to Actors Theater to the Speed Art Museum. I was surprised to hear her to say, “I liked smoking!” No one is that honest when talking about smoking. People enjoy the physical experience smoking. Public health advocates have to realize that and accept that part of the experience if they want to convince people to quit.
Humor and honest communication build a culture of health that is not scolding or condescending. It means helping people develop health literacy skills will do more to encourage healthy choices than pushing a set agenda that says, “If you’re not doing it this way, you’re doing it wrong.”
It also means being willing to go as far as printing silly t-shirts and creating a new mascot (and using social media smartly) to get your message across.
