“Kicking the Habit” by Robert Elder is about how cigarettes impact greatly on our health. This article teaches readers that Americans should be more aware of what they’re doing to their bodies before they use a certain product. The author shows examples of how cigarettes became so popular, and how that affected America's health in a negative way.

For example the author states, “Advertising played a huge role in getting Americans hooked on nicotine, the addictive chemical in cigarettes. Magazine ads, which featured beautiful men and woman lighting up, helped make smoking seem glamorous.” The author is claiming that the main reason why cigarettes became so popular in American society is because stars, magazines, TV shows, even cartoons gave out the messages that cigarettes are “cool” and “normal".  But later on, doctors realized that cigarettes put a great risk on people’s health. The author states, “ When half of American men and woman were smokers- congress began requiring warning labels on cigarettes starting with the caution: "Cigarettes Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health.” This quote is showing us that Americans shouldn’t just do something because millions of other people are doing it. They should think and ask to be informed about all the scientific facts, before they make a decision. This is especially important, if it means that it is risking your health. The author is showing that smoking affected America in a negative way, because it caused lung cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc., to many.

During this article, the author is showing the history of how Americans got hooked to smoking cigarettes. And then after it was discovered how cigarettes could cause a lot of health problems, that’s when Americans attitude about smoking changed dramatically. There is a chemical called nicotine that makes people addicted to cigarette smoking, and he mentions how as far back as 1492, people were addicted to tobacco. He also talks about how by the 17^th century, people were growing it in America and selling it.  The author states that during a World War One, the army gave the soldiers cigarettes, as a “treat”, so when they came back, the soldiers were addicted. This was before people knew cigarettes were bad for you, and caused harm. Before they knew that cigarettes were bad for your health, advertising took a huge role in America. “Advertising played a huge role in getting Americans hooked on nicotine, the addictive chemical in cigarettes…” The sentence that the author uses, “a huge role in getting Americans hooked.” infers that the advertiser had the power to manipulate people, and get them to buy cigarettes and keep buying them. By using the word “hooked” the author makes the readers feel the danger of how cigarettes could make you live an unhealthy, trapped lifestyle. The advertisers were manipulating Americans into smoking cigarette, by showing posters of how it’s “good” to smoke. The author’s purpose is to inform us of the history of the science and the business of making people hooked onto cigarettes so that we will not get hooked onto E cigarettes.

“Kicking the Habit” makes me think that advertisers don’t care about my health or life style, and that they’re just interested in money. I also realize that that the author’s purpose is I should be getting to know the science behind a product before I use it. This article makes me appreciate the doctors in America who fight for our health, as well as the congress. This article reminds me of how my Great Uncle Tommy smoked his whole life, knowing that it was dangerous. And even after kicking the habit, he still passed away from lung cancer.