Anti-smoking TV ad sprays actors with "smoke" simulated with Propylene Glycol

[Vocalek]

This message was posted on the We Are CASAA Facebook page:
[h=6]I saw an anti-cigarette ad on TV today showing a big gas truck thing and a guy in a suit hosing down kids/etc with "smoke" and all the dangers of it. Please, please tell me there's a way to find out if they were using PG to hose these people down since it's safe. By the looks of it, these people were hosed down with more vapor than I produce in an entire year.[/h]Later, Chris tracked down a copy of the ad here: Live Tobacco-Free Austin | Sherry Matthews Advocacy Marketing | Tanker | WE LOVE AD

Philosophy
A new public service campaign for Austin, Texas’ Live tobacco-Free program makes the point that secondhand smoke is a danger wherever it occurs, indoors or out. Conceived by Sherry Matthews Advocacy Marketing, Austin, and directed by Scott McCullough, the new 30-second spot, in English and Spanish versions, shows a large tanker truck driving through Austin as a worker in a haz-mat suit sprays unsuspecting residents with thick, billowy clouds of noxious fumes. People at an outdoor restaurant, kids playing in a park and pedestrians strolling along a path react in horror and disgust as they are enveloped by the sooty smoke. The voiceover notes that secondhand cigarette smoke contains 7,000 chemicals, many harmful to humans, and directs consumers to the Live tobacco-Free Austin website for more information.

In the comment section, Steve Chase asked: "Obviously real smoke wasn't used in this commercial. What was used to simulate the smoke?"

The response: "Fog juice"... aka: Propylene Glycol??

If inhaling PG is dangerous, surely they wouldn't be going out and spraying unsuspecting actors with it, now would they?

 

[edensin]

That's awesome. Thanks for posting it.

 

[VapApe]

Any one care to guess what their views of e ciggs are.

 

[ratpack7]

I just watched the video. I have been involved in theater, Dance clubs, Haunted house's, and laser shows for decades I have worked with every type of FOG machine. ( Dry ice, Liquid nitrogen, and PG) They most defiantly used a PG fog machine to make that video.

 

[kristin]

Sorry, it would be an awesome point and I wish it were true, but it's not PG.

“The smoke spewed by the man in the haz-mat suit did not come from cigarettes,” he says. “It was a combination of mineral oil, compressed air and water. It’s used all the time in films and live shows and it’s perfectly safe.” SCREEN | Secondhand Smoke PSA Campaign Aims to Help Austin Breathe Easier | August 2012 Stories

 

[Vocalek]

I wonder if the director might be mistaken. There is some concern about lipoid pneumonia with use of oil-based fogging liquids.

At Harvard, there is a limit on exposure to fogs created using glycols. No use is allowed for oil-based liquids.

Airborne Media Policy

I sent an email to the director, asking him to double-check which type of liquid was used to generate the artificial smoke.

 

[VapApe]

Or the director is covering up, that they did in fact use PG knowing it to be used in e ciggs.

 

[kristin]

I wonder if the director might be mistaken. There is some concern about lipoid pneumonia with use of oil-based fogging liquids.

At Harvard, there is a limit on exposure to fogs created using glycols. No use is allowed for oil-based liquids.

Airborne Media Policy

I sent an email to the director, asking him to double-check which type of liquid was used to generate the artificial smoke.

Yes, I actually mentioned the lipid pneumonia issue on our Facebook group page. They probably figured it wouldn't hurt anyone since they are outside. A law of physics which cigarette smoke (and only cigarette smoke) seems to break.

 

[VapApe]

I did some checking in the diy sites. They are using VG and water. Makes sense seeing how VG makes more vapor than PG.

 

[Screwbag]

Nice find!

 

[Vocalek]

I have received the following email message from the Director of the Tanker ad:

the ingredient mixed with the water to create the fog is called Glycol, it is used in food, the same stuff they use in nightclubs and theaters, not dangerous

Sincerely, Scott McCullough

 

[VapApe]

Mystery solved !

And he would have gotten away with it, If wasn't for throes meddling kids.

 

[ratpack7]

I have received the following email message from the Director of the Tanker ad:

LOL. I knew it! I spent decades standing in clouds of PG fog.