imagine going to the store to buy your favorite ice cream. when you get there though, you learn that the price has doubled due to a fat tax levied by the government – and to make it even worse – the package doesn’t show the chocolatey goodness, but instead shows pictures of the fat that will build up in your body! sounds crazy, right? well that’s what’s happening with cigarettes.
starting in september 2012, the fda in america will be requiring cigarette packaging to have the top half covered in graphic anti-smoking images (usa today article – although it might not happen now due to a court ruling). these types of packages already exist in australia, and i have attached a few picts of packages i’ve seen around. they are disgusting images, but does it stop people from smoking… i doesn’t seem like it!
now look… i’m not a smoker, i never was, and i hate them. i think smoking is disgusting and hate it when people smoke around me and i’m forced to inhale second hand smoke. i love laws making it illegal for people to smoke in restaurants and bars… but forcing cigarette companies to put these images on their packages seems a bit much to me. is there any other category of product that is required to use half their product packaging to show images like this? let’s be honest, people who will smoke are going to smoke… and over time, people will just become desensitized to the images anyway. does the surgeon general’s warning even mean anything now? no…
in addition to australia, these graphic images already appear on cigarette packaging in many other countries. has smoking ceased in these countries? obviously not!
