# Will ugly pics on cigarette packs make you stop? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 21, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342 "2011-06-21T20:56:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/1 "2011-06-21T20:56:42Z")
Will graphic images of the terrors of cigarette smoking cause you to quit? Warning, some of them are indeed nasty. [Link to images.](http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/06/21/137316580/be-warned-fda-unveils-graphic-cigarette-labels?sc=nl&cc=nh-20110621) I predict great sales in cigarette cases. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/2 "2011-06-21T21:09:49Z")
\*\*Will ugly pics on cigarette packs make you stop? \*\* No. What will make me quit is higher prices and fewer places I can light up. But some of those images may cause a few teenagers to think twice before starting. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/3 "2011-06-21T21:12:09Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > \*\*Will ugly pics on cigarette packs make you stop? \*\* > > No. What will make me quit is higher prices and fewer places I can light up. But some of those images may cause a few teenagers to think twice before starting. 1. How high? 2. IF I had asked “How high” 10 years ago, what would you have said? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/4 "2011-06-22T00:35:09Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > 1. How high? > 2. IF I had asked “How high” 10 years ago, what would you have said? I don’t know how high. It’s like asking how high gas prices have to go before you make a drastic change in your driving habits. $5/gallon, sure. How about $4.99? $4.98? $4.97? But at some point you say “it isn’t worth it anymore.” ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/5 "2011-06-22T01:30:08Z")
I already quit, but just for the record, my teeth never looked like that. Nor did the teeth of any other smoker I know. Who the hell was that, a meth addict? If the rest of the pix are that stupid, I predict they will do absolutely nothing. Kinda like “Reefer Madness” was good for keeping folks off pot. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/6 "2011-06-22T01:42:24Z")
I smoke cigars, so it won’t do anything for me one way or the other. I can’t see what some pictures would do for folks who already smoke, though…if they don’t know that cigarettes are bad for you by now then they have been living under a rock for years. I suppose it might be help with preventing new smokers from starting, however, though again I think most people are generally aware that cigarettes are bad for you by this point. I thought that cigarette smoking was on the decline for the past few years, so I’m puzzled as to why people wanted to bother with this new campaign. (I also don’t see why the ‘I know what’s best for you’ types don’t just push to have the things outlawed and have done with it. From what I can tell the resentment by smokers against this stuff is rising as they reach the hard core smoker types, and this is just going to make them even more angry and resentful I should think) -XT ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/7 "2011-06-22T01:47:38Z")
I chew Copenhagen, but when I was in Thailand a few years ago I ran out a week before my trip was over. They already have those pictures on cigarettes in Thailand and I still smoked for the week before I could get back to the US for a can of chew. ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/8 "2011-06-22T01:50:11Z")
No, it won’t make me quit, but it does piss me off. With the amount of tax revenue the states bring in from cigarettes - leave me alone! I’ll quit when I’m ready! ---
**Author:** ![Elret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Elret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elret)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/9 "2011-06-22T02:04:40Z")
Not me. Back in the day when you could still smoke in bars, they put some of those icky type pictures on the packs and I developed a habit of putting a napkin or a glove over the pack as it sat on the bar because I didn’t want to look at it. I knew it wasn’t good for me, and yeah, it was just gross. Inside the packs were little inserts with tips on quitting, that generally got tossed with the inner foil. THAT might have been more helpful to be printed on the outside of the pack as I wouldn’t have felt the need to cover it and it may have sunk in, looking idly at it with each smoke. ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/10 "2011-06-22T02:17:57Z")
No. But I was thinking about this today, and if the point is to get people to quit, they’re going about it in exactly the wrong way. The things that help smokers quit are positive statements, like “We know it’s scary to quit, but you can do it!” Or, a stat like “If you smoke a pack a day and quit, in three years you’d have enough for a Porsche!” These negative statements do nothing to drive people to quit - smokers know what the hazards are. The continued assumption that smokers are total morons is arrogant and incorrect, and if smokers are treated this way, nothing coming from the other side will help. Why would I listen to someone who treats me like a moron? ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/11 "2011-06-22T05:57:35Z")
Actually, at least one of the pics for the new cigarette labels is indeed about quitting. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/12 "2011-06-22T06:02:08Z")
Wait, you mean smoking is bad for you? How could I have not known that until there were pictures on the packs? :rolleyes: As with **carnivorousplant** , I predict higher sales in cigarette cases. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/13 "2011-06-22T06:13:08Z")
Contrary to the assumptions some posters have made, there is in fact evidence that such pictures and warnings are effective in persuading smokers not to smoke, or to reduce their smoking. The issue of the effectiveness of such warnings and pix went to court in Canada some years ago. The trial court’s conclusion on the evidence was that such warnings did in fact have an effect and did persuade people not to smoke, or to reduce their smoking. The [Supreme Court of Canada](http://scc.lexum.org/en/2007/2007scc30/2007scc30.html) summarised the trial judge’s findings of fact on this point as follows: > [@](#): > > 135 The evidence as to the importance and effectiveness of such warnings establishes a rational connection between Parliament’s requirement for warnings and its objectives of reducing the incidence of smoking and of the disease and death it causes. In the course of the previous proceedings dealing with the ban on tobacco advertising, this Court unanimously held that “both parties agree that past studies have shown that health warnings on tobacco product packages do have some effects in terms of increasing public awareness of the dangers of smoking and in reducing the overall incidence of smoking in our society”: RJR-MacDonald Inc. v. Canada (Attorney General), [1994] 1 S.C.R. 311, per Sopinka and Cory JJ., at p. 353; see also RJR, McLachlin J., at para. 158. A mass of evidence in the intervening years supports this conclusion. > > 136 If further evidence were required of the rationality of Parliament’s requirement that warnings occupy 50 percent of product packaging, it is supplied by the manufacturers’ response to the increase from 33 percent to 50 percent of the principal display surfaces. The evidence reveals that they saw the increase as a threat and sought to meet it by devising counter-strategies to minimize the overall impact of the warnings. > > 137 Regarding minimal impairment, the question is whether the requirement for warning labels, including their size, falls within a range of reasonable alternatives. The manufacturers argue that the increase from 33 percent to 50 percent of the package cannot be justified. However, the evidence established that bigger warnings may have a greater effect. Parliament is not required to implement less effective alternatives: RJR, at paras. 160 and 163. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/14 "2011-06-22T12:02:44Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Contrary to the assumptions some posters have made, there is in fact evidence that such pictures and warnings are effective in persuading smokers not to smoke, or to reduce their smoking. I’m curious if there are any studies on that. 🙂 For the record, I just have to quit e-cigarettes now so I can buy a VW! ---
**Author:** ![Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/15 "2011-06-22T12:06:10Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I predict great sales in cigarette cases. Half right. In Spain the cigarette manufacturers switched from stiff packs to soft packs ‘in order to cut costs for their customers’, and helpfully gave away free plastic cases to protect against crushing, which entirely coincidentally covered the scary image but left the branding visible. My cite is my friend Bob, who has just returned from a holiday there. You can trust Bob. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/16 "2011-06-22T12:15:07Z")
What would make me quit would be a total ban on nicotine as a dangerous, toxic drug. Let the tobacco companies sell all the nicotine-free cigs they want, like Coca-cola is free to sell all the coca-free cola they want. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/17 "2011-06-22T12:20:48Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > Wait, you mean smoking is bad for you? How could I have not known that until there were pictures on the packs? :rolleyes:. Heh, yeah. We’ve had these pictures on cigarette packets for years now in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![Hogfather65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7bcc69/32.png) [@Hogfather65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogfather65)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/18 "2011-06-22T12:28:35Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > \*\*Will ugly pics on cigarette packs make you stop? \*\* > > No. What will make me quit is higher prices and fewer places I can light up. But some of those images may cause a few teenagers to think twice before starting. Dought that - My daughter and her friends collect them and have even seen the made in to a card deck for a drunken game of SNAP… ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/19 "2011-06-22T14:13:08Z")
We know Prohibition didn’t work, and tobacco products are far more addicting than alcohol, so that option will never be used. The pictures for the cigarette packs don’t look all that graphic to me, but of course I work in Cancer Central and it’s a routine part of the job. Maybe we should instead mandate new names for the brands, like Laryngeal Carcinoma Slims and Myocardial Infarct 100s. That and a few strategic ads, like one featuring a wasted guy hauling his oxygen tank, shaking his fist at the do-gooders and proclaiming (between wheezes) that no stupid ad will get _him_ to stop smoking. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342/20 "2011-06-22T14:23:22Z")
We’ve had those in France for a while. One thing I find particularly funny is that, alongside the gruesome shock shots of meth mouthes, tar-ridden lungs and the like and the helpful little messages like “smokers die sooner”, there’s one that says “smoking can cause impotence & decrease libido”. You know, just in case the threat of gruesome painful death wasn’t scary enough 🙂 But anyway, I smoke and I don’t give a hoot about the pics. Don’t even see them, really. It’s not exactly news that smoking is a stupid and dangerous vice. At best they might scare teenagers or people thinking about trying, but even that’s doubtful to me. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-ugly-pics-on-cigarette-packs-make-you-stop/586342.md?page=2)