Approximately one in five Americans smokes. That figure hasn’t changed since 2004. So the Food and Drug Administration has upped the ante on cigarette-pack warning labels. They will now be graphic–far removed from those parental-like admonitions of the 1960s that dispassionately noted that “Cigarettes may be hazardous to your health.”
In order to get the attention of this country’s 46 million smokers, especially teenagers, the FDA is ramping up a fear and loathing campaign. It will range from disgusting images of diseased lungs and rotting teeth to a corpse and will cover the upper half of cigarette packs. Nine different images in all.
Maybe that will whittle down the estimated 443,000 deaths per year in the United States linked to tobacco use. Maybe it will lower the casualty rate in Florida, now estimated at 30,000 annually. Maybe.
The biggest challenge–and the foremost priority–is kids. As in deter them from ever starting. But there remains considerable skepticism that teens–a demographic often without intimations of mortality–might not be won over by scare-tactic labels. Hell, their video games are more graphic.
Well, then, here’s another choice to add to the other nine. Try scaring and insulting. To scare is also to dare. But to insult is to belittle. Combine words with an image. For example, over the photo of the guy with the tracheotomy: “I Buy These Because I’m Stupid.”
If not, then try to balance the budget with an obscene excise tax.