We have ways of making you healthy

Hats off to the NSW Cancer Institute for their latest ad campaign, 'Which Disease'. You can see it here, but if you can't be arsed, it's basically poking fun at the way smokers try and avoid the more graphic health warnings on cigarette packets; no-one wants the picture of mouth cancer, but emphysema – a close-up of a lung which could just as well be roofing insulation – is ok. The thrust of the ad is that you can't choose which disease you get from smoking.

It's very true and less heavy-handed than their previous efforts, usually marked by the absence of irony and the terminally grey filter they film everything through. I had expected them to continue taking the hard line and even had a couple of proposals up my sleeve, one to start printing the health warnings on the actual cigarettes. How many people could handle smoking a ciggie with a picture of a gangrenous foot on the filter?

In Australia we have a history of shocking public service announcements. The bar was set 20 years ago by this classic grim reaper AIDS ad which I found on youtube. I hadn't seen it for ages, and remembered it as OTT and naff. At times it it is – check out the baby somersaulting out of the mother's arms for example – but it's also pretty frightening. It gave kids and adults nightmares and got them asking questions. We now point to this, and the government policies of the time, as the reason for having a relatively low incidence of AIDS. Still, I loved the comment one person left: “the scariest thing about this ad is the hairdos”.

Back in Bogotá they dusted off the grim one (aka la muerte) for a public safety campaign about crossing the road. First they spray-painted stars (estrellas) wherever people had been run over (estrellado), then they had transit officers dress up as the grim reaper and if you tried to cross the road illegally, they scythed your head off. Actually, they didn’t, but they did blow a whistle, and my wife says, sometimes they grabbed you and hugged you. Effective? Not at the time of us leaving.

So is fear still the best motivator for public health and safety? I’m undecided. The latest round of ads I’ve seen here are targeted at marijuana users with lines like “You’ve got beautiful eyes … when they’re not bloodshot.” and “I wouldn’t be firing you … if you bothered to turn up on time.” There are a couple more, playing on fear of social rejection and fear of letting down your mates in a team sport scenario. It's not the pot making us yawn at these ads but the fact we've already overdosed on fear. In this climate, humour could be the best medicine - I hope they try it.