Jun 21, 2011
The new FDA-required pictorial cigarette warnings
These warnings were released by the FDA today. They’ll cover at least half of each cigarette pack by mid-2013.
What do you think—Too much? Not enough? Just right?
(via HuffPo)
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This just ticks me off. For the record I don’t smoke; never tried it never will. I know smoking is bad for your health. You would have to be living under a rock for the last twenty years to NOT know it is unhealthy. However I still prefer to live in a free country where anyone can destroy their own health at will, and where the government doesn’t spend a ton of money meddling in free enterprise. End rant.
You are my hero. If only everyone had this opinion!
Amen!
Just FYI go do some research and find out that the government does not pay for this, they make the tobacco companies pay for the ads. Everyone knows smoking is not healthy and people do make their own decision to smoke or not smoke. No one says you cant buy it… these types of ads just helps kids and teens understand the risk in a more view-able manner.
“However I still prefer to live in a free country where anyone can destroy their own health at will, and where the government doesn’t spend a ton of money meddling in free enterprise.” has to be one of the most ignorant things I’ve read on the internet in a while, but I guess stupidity is also considered “free will”.
Who paid for the design of the warning labels? Who will pay for disseminating the requirements to tobacco companies? Who will pay for enforcement of the new laws? Who paid for the utilities at the FDA offices while its resources were being aimed toward this goal? Sure, maybe the government has exorbitant taxes on tobacco products, but a lot of money will be lost in bureaucracy. Also, taxing one product higher than another because of health risks sets a bad precedent for what a government can decide for its people. What if the majority deems religion a health risk? (An awful lot of violence can be traced back to it.) Shall we tax religious texts and use that money to educate the public on the dangers of fanaticism? Put images of jihad on the Koran to make the risks more “viewable”?
Obviously this is a soap-box for me, and I am not saying that anti-tobacco education is bad, or that it wouldn’t be awesome if someone decided to not start smoking. I’m just saying it is 100% not Uncle Sam’s business.
Also, thanks Calvin and Lee :)
Uncle Sam is only sending out a warning. Kully is right, just like old time movies made it look cool, the government is just trying to change, ” the message “. Free will is played out by what you absorb and learn. Period the end.
Like. A lot.
Agree totally- I am in high school, and I have known cigarettes are harmful since preschool. Even my 7-yr-old brother knows they are bad for you. The reason most teens smoke is as an act of foolish rebellion, because they ‘don’t care’ that it ruins their lives. The ads aren’t worth it.
Worse still is that the government is still subsidizing tobacco farmers. Either make it illegal, or STFU!
They’ve been doing this in Canada for years. Not sure of the data supports the scare-tactics working – but I’d like to think a teenage girl picking up a pack and seeing the lady with no lips from oral cancer MIGHT think twice before making it a long-term action.
here’s the link, in case you think the American ones are bad: check out ours! :)
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/media/photogal/label-etiquette-eng.php
Went to that link, Kendall, wow! I am all for it. Kids who can’t even read will still get the message, even if they see mom and dad partaking and think it’s o k for them. =D X-smoker/ 20 years/ 3 years smoke free
yeah, i was in singapore two years ago and the ones there were terrifying. the american ones are tame.
http://www.smoke-free.ca/plain-packaging/documents/2009/worldconference/JoAnn_presentation.pdf
Even though the consequences of smoking are serious stuff I’ve yet to figure out why these types of ads are necessary. Let’s start putting heart attack labels on fattening food, stupid labels on every alcoholic beverage, not paying attention labels for people talking on their cellphones, texting, too many horomone and antibiotic labels in our farming foodchain(s), and so on.
The difference being the fat guy next to me eating a triple burger from mcdonald’s isn’t going to kill ME with his poor decisions.
This is supremely cowardly. They don’t have the guts to make tobacco illegal so they’ll go to great lengths to make it unattractive.
Bingo. It’s farcical.
they look like a class project you would find for Intro to Product Design.
True… It must have been a cake design job since the goal was to make it unattractive.
it is hard to not think this is overboard. i get that. but being a cardiac and thoracic surgery nurse, i have watched too many die of lung cancer due to second hand smoking to not appreciate this. i do not think it would change people who have been smoking for 20 years, but it might prevent a teen or a young mom, from picking them up. i do not know how much $ this cost the government, but honestly, probably not as much as the billions a year for those on medicaid and medicare to receive the health care needed for these patients. different angle.
I don’t see the value in this. Addicted smokers have developed an “us vs. them” mentality from all the changes over the last few years anyway. Children are already informed of the dangers in schools. I would be surprised if the number of smokers in the US is growing as it is. Graphic warnings won’t have that much of an effect beyond the initiatives already underway, not to mention the costs that have been increased through further taxes.
Addicted smokers will continue to smoke until they die off. And most of them wish they could just quit too. Have you ever heard someone say they are glad they started? Me neither.
Pointless. I’ve seen the blackened lung ones in the UK. Folks just set them picture-side down and don’t give it a second thought.
Is it me or does the third one down on the left look a lot like Obama?
i thought that!
ps. i agree the Gov spends way too much $ on health care… but most of it is reactionary, and not preventative.
I think it just increases the market for cigarette pack silicon skins.
I think the real reason most kids these days pick up smoking is to be rebellious. As has been said, I think everyone (even teen moms) know they’re harmful. People don’t smoke because they think it’s going to improve their life long term. So arguing long-term risk falls on deaf ears.
At this point the danger becomes part of the appeal. It may seem counter intuitive, but I know I smoked because I wanted to give a big middle finger to the value system of my community when I was a teenager (I grew up in texas). I wanted to say that I can make my own decisions and you can’t make them for me. It gave me a feeling that I was in control of my life, because I could CHOOSE to make the wrong decisions.
Not sure how these warning labels are going to solve that problem.
Sorry majority commentors, I think these are awesome. I remember seeing them in Canada many years ago too. Maybe not a deterrent to long time smokers, but perhaps one of the more moving ones may discourage young people who are experimenting. A picture is worth a thousand words.
And yes, I think they could get even more graphic with it.
Here in Brazil, the warning labels are particularly brutal…and creative. One shows a burnt-out cigarette, hanging downwards in a not-so-subtle message about impotence.
Reminds me of the Meth campaign they have here in MT. I know it’s not the same method of distribution, but extreme graphic tactic is similar. It seemed to have been more effective than all of the public assemblies and PSAs that I grew up with: http://www.montanameth.org/About_Us/results.php
I just bring this up to point out that the general knowledge of something being bad for you isn’t always as convincing as graphic photos and TV ads. Especially to the younger, more visually stimulated generation.
I don’t know what I think about these warnings specifically but I do feel like the argument that “everyone knows already” isn’t the strongest one out there.
The pictures are gross and I am annoyed at having my eyes assaulted by them.
I haven’t smoked in years and I didn’t quit because of an ad campaign, but because I got pregnant. Maybe I’m an odd one, but I am motivated more by beauty and love than by ugliness and manipulation.
Yeah, we’ve had this in Australia for a while now. Currently the govt is attempting to force plain packaging on every brand (no branding – just the name). I’m hoping the WTO sues the pants off this government.
As Max says, Australia has had packaging like this for quite a number of years. The debate has moved on to plain ‘brand free’ packaging.
The one that makes me laugh is “Warning: Cigarettes can be addictive” What happens when you get one of those? Do you say “Well, I better have another packet then”. :)
these labels should or could also be painted on cars, planes, expensive luxury boats, etc…