A reader writes:
I understand that cigarettes kill more people than car accidents and all other diseases combined, but this new warning design is on many levels laughable. If we go down this road with cigarettes, why not put pictures of people killed by drunk drivers on cases of Budweiser and pictures of diseased livers on bottles of Crown Royal? How about pics of infected and dead animals from cosmetic testing on Maybeline lipstick? Rotted-out teeth on Pepsi cans? Pictures of hugely obese people on Ben & Jerry's containers?
If tobacco products are going to be singled out now, what product category is next?
The FDA can find potential problems with a whole lot of crap that's on the grocery shelves. Placing alarming images on packages only further desensitizes the public. If the government agencies did some real public service announcements, done right and done well, by big city professional creative people, that clearly send the right message, it would go a lot further than the novelty packaging adaptations being proposed.
I think most American people have addictive personalities. If you take cigarettes away, it's going to be something else they smoke, drink, chew, or inject. Americans in general are lacking when it comes to nutrition and health. I'd like to see the insurance companies spend some of their profits to educate the public about healthy lifestyles, and not some brand-building, feel-good, jingly-jangly message, but more of a scared-straight kind of approach.
(Image by Ron English)
The Dish 