After watching the disturbing and controversial YouTube video (embedded below) of an Indonesian toddler smoking, photographer Frieke Janssens created an unexpected and astonishing exhibit called “Smoking Kids”. While many will find her photographs unsettling, Janssen seeks to make people look at smoking in a different light. Instead of viewing only the portrayed smoker, she draws our attention to the act of smoking, itself. [Read more...]
If you think big tobacco companies have been hurt by the virtually indisputable evidence of cigarettes’ negative health effects, think again. Despite selling a product which will eventually kill their customers, tobacco companies still maintain a 26.7% profit margin, 3 times that of Big Oil, and 2 times that of Big Pharmaceutical. With plenty of money to back advertising campaigns, Big Tobacco has raised a brand new generation of smokers. This Infographic from Frugal Dad breaks down the huge numbers behind the “Big Tobacco” brands. [Read more...]
Different brands and types of tobacco; lots of competition. One has this feature or that selling point… but all with the same goal: Attract the consuming public to want mine and not yours. [Read more...]
Large new warning labels with shocking imagery must be placed on cigarette packages and advertising by October 2012, US government officials from the FDA announced Tuesday. The new labels feature disturbing pictures such as a dead body and a man exhaling smoke through a hole in his neck, along with sayings such as “Smoking can kill you” and “Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease.” The change comes after a 2009 laws passage, the first major change in cigarette labeling after the current black and white warnings where implemented over 25 years ago. The change follows other countries similar designs, many more graphic than those selected by the FDA.
Although the new labeling certainly wouldn’t encourage smoking, the effectiveness of such labeling is still up for debate. What’s your opinion on the new designs and whether they will work? [Read more...]
