Kevin Lyons, the renown Brooklyn street artist, has in addition to presiding as design director of Anomaly and creative director of Natural Born, recently partnered with Vans to get the word on the street about something plaguing Americans. You already know the daunting commercials that are equally well-curated and horrifying about smoking in America. They’re brought to us by The Truth, bringing to life the truth about cigarettes.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 480,000 die every year from smoking. The piece that people don’t often get to see is that it’s not a pretty death. Smoking at 20 looks glamorous and sexy, as a youthful, good-looking, healthy individual can show off just how effortlessly they can inhale and exhale a cigarette. But the implications of smoking are long harvested and they catch up with you. What seems like a great way to socialize or relax now, can ultimately result in cancer, heart disease, diabetes and chronic bronchitis.
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While I love the argument that I’ve heard from folks that they ‘just don’t care’, presumably because old age is so far away and distant, the reality is that we all grow up, and a whole bunch of us decide to have kids. For a second, instead of considering how you’re going to feel with congenital lung failure (because you ‘don’t care’), think about how your kids are going to feel with weekends spent at the nursing home because, due to a compromised respiratory system, you were susceptible to pneumonia, and with the super bug that rampantly spread through hospitals across the country, your debilitated immune system is now resisting any and all antibiotics. As you wilt away in the hospital bed you’re incapable of getting out of, left blankly staring at reruns of All in the Family, with a roommate in a coma, maybe consider who’s going to have to witness that all happen. While you ‘don’t care’, your family just might.
Truth, Kevin Lyons and Vans took their initiative to get the word out to Raleigh, North Carolina, where tobacco usage is even more rampant than other places in the country. Lyons created a massive mural, and Vans transposed the creation into limited edition Truth Kevin Lyons Authentic sneakers, $60. Whether you pick up the sneakers, share the story, or simply tell a friend to leave the pack at the convenience store, we can all do our part at stomping out our dependency on cigarettes.
