# Is this anti-smoking image too confronting? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 1, 2006, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678 "2006-11-01T01:38:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/1 "2006-11-01T01:38:51Z")
From a [story in today’s paper:](http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20677422-5006009,00.html) the latest in a series of anti-smoking images/warnings that will have to be placed on cigarette packets. It doesn’t worry me greatly, but I’m not a smoker. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/2 "2006-11-01T01:41:02Z")
Actually, I have to admit it made me laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/3 "2006-11-01T01:43:15Z")
I saw it and my thought was “Meh”. I don’t smoke, but I know that image in particular wouldn’t stop me from smoking. I’d just like to know if that baby actually is the child of a mother who smokes. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/edb3f5/32.png) [@Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Push_Up_Bra)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/4 "2006-11-01T06:44:30Z")
It’s a harsh image but probably not personal enough like the other pics which show gangrenous toes and mouth cancer _shudder_. I mean, it’s kind of focused on women and most young smokers today go ‘well, I’m not pregnant at this point in time, I’ll worry about it later’. I think that anyone my age and under living in Australia who takes up smoking needs a reality check and these ads are delivering. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/5 "2006-11-01T07:29:29Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Push Up Bra] It’s a harsh image but probably not personal enough like the other pics which show gangrenous toes and mouth cancer _shudder_. I mean, it’s kind of focused on women and most young smokers today go ‘well, I’m not pregnant at this point in time, I’ll worry about it later’. I think that anyone my age and under living in Australia who takes up smoking needs a reality check and these ads are delivering. [/QUOTE] The ads are backfiring. I overheard a bunch of kids the other day on the train… “I’ve got the gangrene feet!” “Damn, I’ve just got the quitline.” “I’ve got the one with the arteries.” “Cool, I’ve never seen that one before!” ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/6 "2006-11-01T09:07:30Z")
[QUOTE=Sierra Indigo] I’d just like to know if that baby actually is the child of a mother who smokes. [/QUOTE] Seriously. The kid looks just like our son did when he had to spend his first couple of weeks in the NICU, and neither of us smoke (he’s fine now, he was a bit early and had trouble maintaining a steady breathing rhythm). To be honest, after seeing all the other babies in the NICU who were in seriously bad shape, my first reaction to the photo was, “good, he seems to be doing ok.” ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/7 "2006-11-01T09:33:16Z")
One of the main reasons I’m adamantly opposed to smoking myself is that my father suffered and died in a very ugly way due to smoking (yeah, gangrene isn’t pleasant). However, in general, I don’t think the gory images are likely to be very effective in stopping people who are already smokers. It’s not like smokers only smoke because they’re ignorant of the dangers. Everyone who smokes nowadays is already well aware that it’s dangerous. I’ve heard many stories about people who have witnessed a loved one die of smoking-related illness firsthand, but still the survivor continues to smoke. I guess the immediate gratification of smoking outweighs the seemingly distant, less-than-absolutely-certain dangers of the future. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/8 "2006-11-01T11:38:31Z")
Bingo. If there’s anyone left in the world who doesn’t realize that smoking is bad for you, then I’m guessing that they’re a few thousand miles from the nearest convenience store anyway. It’s not as though anyone has ever read the Surgeon General’s warning and flung the pack away, exclaiming “Oh my god… these are dangerous!!! Why did no one ever tell me? I thought they were full of vitamins and stuff!!!\*” People who smoke know that it’s likely to kill them, and just figure “Well, everybody dies of _something_.” \*I’m sure I stole it from _someone_, but I’m not sure who. Denis Leary, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/9 "2006-11-01T12:32:50Z")
"To my delight, I find that there is a different warning on each pack of cigarettes. Mine says: ‘Warning: Smoking can cause fetal damage or premature birth.’ Fuck it – I’ve found my brand! ‘Yeah, give me a carton of Low Birth Weights.’ Just don’t get the ones that say lung cancer, you know? Shop around. It is your body." –Bill Hicks ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/10 "2006-11-01T13:08:16Z")
Well, I think everyone knows that the whole world smoked back in the day and we didn’t come out with two heads. I’d say it’s pretty useless to pretend that smoking automatically causes problems, because history has already proven them wrong. ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/11 "2006-11-01T13:16:32Z")
We’ve had these cigarette pack warnings in Canada for a while. The one with the [mouth diseases](http://edition.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/01/09/canadian.cigarettes/story.cigarettes.jpg) is pretty gross but [this](http://www.nsra-adnf.ca/images/pageimages/4impotentthum.JPG) one makes me laugh and laugh every time I see it. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/12 "2006-11-01T17:21:45Z")
Too confronting? To whom? Things like this are essentially preaching to the choir. It’s a virtual certainty no current smokers will stop because of them, and I think it’s very questionable that anyone inclined to begin smoking will be deterred by them. They generate the biggest reaction in a portion of those who are already quite certain to never consider smoking anyway. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/13 "2006-11-01T17:39:00Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] Seriously. The kid looks just like our son did when he had to spend his first couple of weeks in the NICU, and neither of us smoke (he’s fine now, he was a bit early and had trouble maintaining a steady breathing rhythm). To be honest, after seeing all the other babies in the NICU who were in seriously bad shape, my first reaction to the photo was, “good, he seems to be doing ok.” [/QUOTE] Yep, he (she?) \*Looks \*like a feeder and grower, not even on a vent, but a CPAP! Good color, good muscle…of course we can’t see inside it, but it looks like one of the luckier babies. I do wonder why the staff is letting it sprawl out like that, our nurses were very good about keeping [WhyBaby](http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rhiannon_dreamsnake/detail?.dir=10a4&.dnm=2106.jpg&.src=ph) nice and snug with her bendy-thing, but my bet is that the photographer wanted a more striking picture, so asked them to unsnuggle the baby for a minute. Since smoking can lead to both prematurity and low birth weight, I don’t think it’s false advertising, but OTOH, a whole lot of things can lead to prematurity besides smoking, so, no, there’s no way to know if that particular tyke was the victim of a smoking mother. But I also agree, as an ex-smoker, that putting gory pictures on the smokes is not going to do a thing. I favor gory pictures like this and the [Smoking is Very Glamorous](http://www.uga.edu/relay/Smoking%20is%20glamorous.gif) type for young kids prevention, but older smokers are just too jaded for it to have any sort of effect whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/14 "2006-11-01T17:45:12Z")
I promise to never smoke while pregnant. Or while my SO is pregnant. Should be easy since I’m both male and gay. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/15 "2006-11-01T17:50:17Z")
Hey, wait a minute! That baby isn’t unborn at all! ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/16 "2006-11-01T17:53:08Z")
[QUOTE=DianaG] Bingo. If there’s anyone left in the world who doesn’t realize that smoking is bad for you, then I’m guessing that they’re a few thousand miles from the nearest convenience store anyway. It’s not as though anyone has ever read the Surgeon General’s warning and flung the pack away, exclaiming “Oh my god… these are dangerous!!! Why did no one ever tell me? I thought they were full of vitamins and stuff!!!\*” People who smoke know that it’s likely to kill them, and just figure “Well, everybody dies of _something_.” \*I’m sure I stole it from _someone_, but I’m not sure who. Denis Leary, perhaps? [/QUOTE] Bloom County. “Hey, it sez here these things cause low birth weight in pregnant women! Heck with _that!_” ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/17 "2006-11-01T18:31:37Z")
[QUOTE=DianaG] It’s not as though anyone has ever read the Surgeon General’s warning and flung the pack away, exclaiming “Oh my god… these are dangerous!!! Why did no one ever tell me? I thought they were full of vitamins and stuff!!!\*” \*I’m sure I stole it from _someone_, but I’m not sure who. Denis Leary, perhaps? [/QUOTE] I thought it was Dave Barry. He also mentions (in this piece) thanking them for the helpful consumer information. 🙂 I think it’s in the book he wrote where he’s standing up holding a TV under his arm. (I can’t remember the name of it and can’t find a picture of it). ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/18 "2006-11-01T19:08:22Z")
[QUOTE=Missy2U] I thought it was Dave Barry. He also mentions (in this piece) thanking them for the helpful consumer information. 🙂 I think it’s in the book he wrote where he’s standing up holding a TV under his arm. (I can’t remember the name of it and can’t find a picture of it). [/QUOTE] That would be Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits. And yep, that was the book the bit came from. I agree that putting these warnings and pics on cigarette packs are a waste of good tax money. I don’t believe it’ll convince anyone of anything. People who are going to smoke are going to smoke, regardless. And everyone already knows the dangers. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that people who _don’t_ smoke probably wouldn’t start even if new evidence were found that smoking was pretty much harmless. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/19 "2006-11-01T19:44:22Z")
Those ads make me want to take up smoking, just out of spite. ---
**Author:** ![sciguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@sciguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciguy)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678/20 "2006-11-01T20:06:09Z")
[QUOTE=DianaG] It’s not as though anyone has ever read the Surgeon General’s warning and flung the pack away, exclaiming “Oh my god… these are dangerous!!! Why did no one ever tell me? I thought they were full of vitamins and stuff!!!\*” \*I’m sure I stole it from _someone_, but I’m not sure who. Denis Leary, perhaps? [/QUOTE] That line seems pretty close to Denis Leary on his “No Cure for Cancer” act about a guy petitioning to make cigarette warnings bigger: > [@Denis Leary](#): > > ..all of the sudden smokers around the world are going to be going, “Yeah, Bill, I’ve got some cigarettes.. HOLY SHIT! These things are bad for you! Shit, I thought they were good for you! I thought they had Vitamin C in them and stuff!” Although it’s a pretty obvious joke, so it wouldn’t surprise me if other people have covered the topic. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-image-too-confronting/378678.md?page=2)