New GRAPHIC warning labels on cigarette packs

[insertNameHere]

Exactly. But like other warning labels out there, there's always a chance someone will do it (i.e. the chainsaw warning about keeping it AWAY from your genitals )

WELL when you find a better way for me to shave my gentials I will obey the warnings.... Actually, do we want someone who needs that warning to have the ability to be able to reproduce, I mean seriously the weak SHOULDNT survive for a reason, they just pollute the DNA pool and will make us extinct

[Sleepwalker]

Despite all rationalization, the smoking rate continues to drop... as for not believing all them durn egg heads with them thar med ee kull stat is ticks, whatcha gonna do? Some people believe wearing seatbelts is more dangerous that not wearing seatbelts, because they want to. Rationalization. Not reason.

About 14'000 people are killed by drunk drivers each year in the US.

Half a million die from smoking. At some point, you have to ask yourself, if your premise about the emdical profession lying to you is true, how many of those deaths aren't from smoking? 90% So, only 50'000 people died from smoking?

Only three times the number killed by drunk drivers in a year, much less a night?

I mean, are you saying that noone dies from inhaling carcinogens into their lungs? Noone at all? Because, considering the vast number of smoker, that's just about what would have to be true to make your claim correct.



Also, erectile dysfunction IS on cigarette packages in places with visual warnings.

[Hyena Dandy]

I don't approve of the graphic warning labels. For the most part, smokers are not unaware that smoking is bad for you. Its like alcohol, or really any other drug. Its not that people don't know it can fuck you up, its just that they don't CARE.

Its seemed like people are trying to ban smoking, or failing that, try to shame smokers into giving up. People should be able to make their own choices in the matter. I don't smoke much, only once every few months. When I do, I do it in private.

But really, if someone smokes a hell of a lot, that's their choice.

I understand banning mascots. I understand banning TV advertisements.

But really, its reaching the point that its obvious people just want to make smoking illegal. Why don't they push for that? Things like this are dishonest. They're clearly trying to shame people into not smoking, not educate smokers on the possible consequences.

[Sleepwalker]

Why would graphic warning labels be 'shaming'? It is the same premise that frickin airbag pictorial warnings have- a cartoon of a baby's head popping off. I find that pretty damned disturbing, myself, but I don't somehow feel like I'm being oppressed.

How many people know that smoking fucks with your erection? Or can give you mouth cancers as well as lung cancer? Or can cause you to slowly drown despite being surrounded by air due to emphysema? Different people have different things that are important to them, and a campaign that directly targets the users of cigarettes seem sensible to me.

As a woman, I am surrounded by all sorts of messages directed at me and my potential fetus creating. This this and this causes these horrible defects. It's just information. I don't give a shit, because I have no intention of bearing a fetus to term, but I don't find it fucking offensive.

[SkullKing]

While I don´t think the warnings will do anything really useful I can understand the Idea.

Ok, So everyone knows smoking is bad for your health, but they seems to think that people either think"it is not that bad" or refuse to dwell on it, and that the warnings may do two things.

1: It shows how bad it can be("I knew it was bad for my lungs but I never thought my lung could get THAT bad")

2: It would force people to think about it every time they pick a pack.


Here one of the warnings shows a woman and a small child besides the bed of a terminal person with a frase like "smoking destroys families"

and there is one about impotence two

I think those two might possibly accomplish something, even if nothing ground breaking

[blas87]

Smoking causes erection problems? Really? I've only dated one guy who couldn't get it up on a regular basis. He wasn't a smoker.

[SkullKing]

Yes they do, but just like cancer not everyone who smokes have them, and not everyone who has smokes.

Also, some people do stop smoking, if these adds just give an extra nudge for people who are trying to/thinking about stopping, I think it is a good thing.

I mean, even if it helps a very very small percentage of people, who were already thinking about stopping, I think it is a good thing.

[Peppergirl]

So like I specifically learned in my Persuasion and Propaganda class, scare tactics like that don't do jack shit to people who already smoke...

This.

When I smoked, these scare tactics just made me even MORE determined to fight off quitting. Sounds childish, but I hate being told what to do.

I had to be ready myself to quit. It took 20 years, but I finally got there. And it wasn't some stupid graphic cigarette pack or people lecturing me that finally got me there.

[DGoddess]

Probably not; where I am, when the images first came out it was kinda like "gotta catch them all". XD Or "Hey, you've got a stiff pic! Me too!"

I can see that.

Personally, it's not going to stop me. Besides, I can't see where the government would make cigarettes outright illegal - they'd lose way too much tax money.

*lights up on that note*

[Andara Bledin]

Here's a little graphic, courtesy of a Cracked contest entrant that sums up my opinion pretty succinctly:

Warning Labels Warning

^-.-^

[Lace Neil Singer]

When I smoked, these scare tactics just made me even MORE determined to fight off quitting. Sounds childish, but I hate being told what to do.

Same here. All the bumf and scare tactics and people lecturing about quitting just makes me want to smoke even more.

Ironically, the smoking ban has made me smoke more. See, it's not really safe to let a friend go outside a pub on her own, so I and others go with her. Since she's having a cigarette, that means we all light up too, to keep her company. Whereas in the days before the ban, that never happened.

[DGoddess]

Here's a little graphic, courtesy of a Cracked contest entrant that sums up my opinion pretty succinctly:

Warning Labels Warning

^-.-^

I agree with that one 1000%

On a scarier note: I can actually see sometime in the not too far off future that scene from "Clerks" coming true (the one where the customers form a mob and pelted Dante with cigarette packs and called him a "cancer merchant.")

Same here. All the bumf and scare tactics and people lecturing about quitting just makes me want to smoke even more.

Ironically, the smoking ban has made me smoke more. See, it's not really safe to let a friend go outside a pub on her own, so I and others go with her. Since she's having a cigarette, that means we all light up too, to keep her company. Whereas in the days before the ban, that never happened.

We have smoking bans here now (started a couple of years ago) and, although I don't go out as much as I used to, I do find myself smoking more - especially in warmer weather when I can be outside more.

It's nothing for me to sit out here on the deck all afternoon and go through at least half a pack while I'm on the computer.

I think even though the smoking bans were "well intentioned" (and I use the term loosely) I see it's had the opposite effect for the simple reason that although you can restrict where people smoke, it's still not going to stop people from smoking.

[Ginger Tea]

Latest Stick Primo kinda like XKCD

[EricKei]

On a slight tangent, try watching a Cheech & Chong movie on Comedy Central when they've done their best to strip out all the drug references...

o_O Wouldn't the film be like...five minutes long if they did that hackjob properly?

I can't think of the last time i have seen an AD, In America pretty much all the ads have been fucking banned hardcore to the point I don't even know if they still in magazines, not allowed to be on TV.

In the US, at least, tobacco ads are allowed only in print, not on TV nor radio, iirc. There are still plenty of the ads around, however. Just depends on what mags you read.

Are you serious? Wha'd they do, just spool the bitch from the reel directly into a garbage can?

Pretty much.

If the government is SO ADAMANT about people not smoking that they have to pretend to try to discourage it this hard, why not just make it illegal?

(in US) Every time someone tries, the tobacco lobby has it killed. In the cases where such an effort gets media attention, they usually start talking about how doing so will devastate the economies of the tobacco-producing states, costing thousands and thousands of people jobs, etc

I don't approve of the graphic warning labels. For the most part, smokers are not unaware that smoking is bad for you. Its like alcohol, or really any other drug. Its not that people don't know it can fuck you up, its just that they don't CARE.

But really, if someone smokes a hell of a lot, that's their choice.

Agreed 100%. The only way to prevent future generations from smoking is to educate them on the matter before they start. However, once you're an adult, it really is your choice. The only time I object to it (overtly) is when someone is literally blowing smoke in my direction.

[PepperElf]

http://www.timesunion.com/business/a...ls-1432913.php

Personally, I think this is a stupid idea. Smokers know that cigarettes are bad for them, yet they still choose to smoke. Do they really think that putting a picture of a corpse on the packaging will hinder them? Besides, it's really up to the friends and family of smokers to get that person to quit, not the government.

I dunno... has it hurt the sales in australia yet?