Who deserves to die?Early last month, a mysterious viral ad campaign began to confuse and enrage people as messages like “Hipsters Deserve to Die”, “Cat Lovers Deserve to Die”, and “The Tattooed Deserve to Die” popped up on pay phone backs in cities around the U.S.
Passersby ripped down posters all over in protest. “Nobody deserves to die; come on, that’s a hell of a statement,” one man told CBS Chicago.
Until recently, the organization’s website only displayed a slideshow of images like this:
with the message:
“Every year over 160,000 lives are lost to a deadly disease. They didn’t ask for it, but many people seem to think they deserved it. This disease doesn’t discriminate. It affects almost all of us and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. So what is the killer? You’ll find out soon enough.”
The anonymous organization has since been revealed as the Lung Cancer Alliance, the campaign “No One Deserves to Die“. The website now reveals their fight against the stigma that people with lung cancer somehow deserve it:
“Many people believe that if you have lung cancer you did something to deserve it. It sounds absurd, but it’s true. Lung cancer shouldn’t discriminate, and neither should you. Help put an end to the stigma and the disease.”
The Alliance encourages everyone to help make a difference by spreading the word through the viral campaign, becoming an advocate, or making a donation.
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No, that woman is the one who deserves to die. Cats are beautiful and loving creatures. Dogs and cats are both equal and saying cat lovers should die is just evil.
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Hi Jess,
I think you may have misunderstood or not read the entire post. I admit that I never heard of this ad campaign (the post is from 2012) but when I read the article it became apparent that the people behind it were trying to raise awareness of the stigma people with lung cancer endure by running a campaign that said other innocent groups of people (cat lovers, people with tattoos) deserve to die. I think it was ill-advised, to be honest. But it is very true that many people think that people who smoke “deserve” to get cancer. Of course, that’s not true but I don’t think this campaign got that across.
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