Lets face it — everyone knows smoking isn’t good for you. Adults who have made the choice to smoke are aware of the dangers and the things that exist to help stop smoking. Pictures of blackened lungs and limp members have not made a difference so why on earth would Health Canada think this is going to?
Health Canada is considering ordering cigarette companies to put deathbed photos of an emaciated cancer victim on every package.
Health Canada is now testing 49 new health warnings for possible placement on cigarette packages. Two of the new warnings feature photographs of Edmonton anti-smoking activist Barb Tarbox, taken just before her death from cancer.
This is just gruesome and odd. Go back to the drawing board Health Canada — seriously — NOW!
Source
"Pictures of blackened lungs and limp members have not made a difference so why on earth would Health Canada think this is going to?"
Where are you getting your information? I have heard just the opposite reported; it made a significant difference.
I disagree. Some adults may choose to smoke, but a great number are in the process of quitting. All the time. Or planning to quit soon. When I finally quit, it was because I was ashamed to smoke in front of my kids. I didn't want them to lose me to cancer like other family members. It's a powerful, motivating factor. I also have to say, then when I finally did kick the habit, I was extremely glad that by that time, the product wasn't staring me in the face every time I went to the store.
I quit 27 years ago. I saw all the pictures in health class. We were even shown a real lung of a smoker who had died, but none of that was a motivating factor in my starting and/or quitting smoking.
You can go so far that eventually people just numb themselves and death bed photos are IMHO that point. It also is extremely disrespectful to anyone with loved ones that are dying from cigs or other causes. Not everything should be fair game for marketing.
Okay, so that's a single data point. Have you done any research? You've made a lot of assertions but they are all unsupported, aside from one personal anecdote.
Health Canada isn't just flying on a whim. The graphic warnings were an innovative strategy, and no one knew whether or how well it would work. So it was tested and studied in smaller markets, and then it was studied several times in detail after the national roll out. It was a very successful and cost-effective strategy.
Here is some hard data. http://www.psychology.uwaterloo.ca/people/faculty…
You are putting psychology and hard data in the same sentence and think you have a trump card? seriously?
Good day.
Okay, I know that this third post is putting me in "bitchy whiner" territory, but I have to add that if I or someone I loved were dying from smoker's lung (and there's probably a better than even chance I'll find myself or a loved one in that situation), I can think of few things I'd want more than to try to help other people from making the same mistakes. It is not disrespectful in the least.
"most of us are sick when we die, and we all die"
exactly!
I'm sure it's not legal to use any photo without permission, so at least there's that.
But I have bad news for Health Canada, and apparently a lot of other self-righteous people: not many people look good on their deathbeds. As Woody Allen says, most of us are sick when we die, and we all die. Many illnesses are or at least look pretty cruel in late stages, and there's something very wrong about a society that reacts to that reality with fear and loathing and a desire to blame as much as possible rather than with care and compassion.
RE The hard data and quoted statistics and the paper from U of Waterloo.
Smokers KNOW that smoking is bad. Most of them have seen the pictures, been told by the doctor, read the warnings on the packs. And I'd guess a good majority of smokers would like to quit, or are trying to whether or not they read the labels.
But the warnings aren't going to make it happen. It comes down to wanting to quit and being ready. If you aren't ready, nothing in the world is going to get you to quit.