By Eileen Buckley
Buffalo, NY – A very serious anti-tobacco message was part of those annual Super Bowl television commercials that aired this past Sunday. It was sponsored by the American Legacy Foundation as part of its "Truth" anti-smoking campaign.
It was an ad about a fictitious company - called Shards O' Glass -- that laced freeze pops with pieces of glass. It didn't talk about cigarettes or the dangerous of smoking. Instead, a fictional company CEO gives the TV audience a tour of the "Shards O'Glass" factory -- where frozen pops are made with glass. The company leader explains that there are "no safe glass freeze pops" and the additives can cause serious health risks.
At the end of the ad, a statement pops up asking the public to imagine if all companies sold products like tobacco. At the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Dr. John Pauly said the ad was based in part on real research that he conducted that, ironically, found the presence of glass shards in one brand of cigarettes.
Click the "listen" icon above to hear Eileen Buckley's interview with Dr. Pauly.