Ableism and those Terrible CDC Anti-Smoking Advertisements

I didn’t even know what “ableism” was a couple years ago. The first time I encountered the word I initially thought it was pronounced “AY-blee-ism” and had to look it up. But throughout my cancer treatment I’ve encountered it more and more, or at least gotten better at recognizing it. And wow, is it everywhere.

It’s hard to blame anyone too much for this. If you go through life without ever having to consider your health or physical abilities, it’s easy to take those for granted. It’s easy, perhaps almost the default for those without disabilities, to develop dangerous ways of viewing health and physical ability. It seems to take either concerted intentionality or some significant change in health to remedy. But whatever the reason, there’s no denying ableism is an extremely pervasive problem in our society.

One of the most glaring examples of ableism I can think of comes from a deeply disturbing ad series put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concerning smoking. The general theme of most of them is that you shouldn’t smoke because smoking causes a myriad of health problems. There’s nothing wrong with that message, so far. But the ads often go further than that, deeper into more troubling territory. In one ad, a man on oxygen watches helplessly as his wife struggles with the lawnmower, the obvious implication being that he is no longer a “real man” or “useful,” due to his health. Another implies that if you simply don’t smoke, you’ll be guaranteed good health. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the most troubling and blatantly ableist one here. That’s right, he said “it’s hard to serve your country when you’re too weak to put on your uniform.” As someone who has needed help dressing in the last month during the aftermath of some major surgeries, I find this incredibly problematic.

The implication that people can only serve their country—or serve any purpose and be a useful member of society—if they are physically fit and healthy dehumanizes those with health issues and ignores the productivity and useful contributions from the differently abled. Stephen Hawking comes to mind, for one. Worse than that, it attaches value on one’s ability to be productive and serve a function others find useful. I reject such thinking utterly. Human value comes not from people’s abilities or perceived usefulness. Our value is inherent as beings fashioned in the image of God, whatever our particular gifts, talents, and abilities may be.

Yes, I understand the point of this ad campaign. Don’t smoke so you don’t have to deal with difficult health issues. That’s fine. It’s disrespectful towards those of us whose serious health issues have nothing at all to do with lifestyle choices like smoking, it ignores the fact that many people smoke because they’re unable to quit and only started it because of intense societal pressures, and it implies that health issues by definition ruin your life and make you less valuable, but the ad campaign isn’t completely devoid of redeeming qualities. If even one person stays away from smoking because of these ads and as such avoids unnecessary physical suffering down the road, then that’s great. I just think there are better ways to discourage people from smoking than to dehumanize those with health problems.