POLL: For the sake of our children, isn't it time that health warnings on cigarettes openly insult the smoker?

Question

Due to current warnings, nowadays kids in the playground will smoke as a dare out of bravado, and then will face a lifetime of addiction.

It seems the only way to stop kids becoming addicted to something that will drain them of their money and more importantly their health, is to openly insult the smoker instead of giving a health warning.

For the PC brigade out there, if you check your english dictionary, "queer up" means "to make strange or odd", "to make unwell" (the most relevant meaning", "to spoil or jeopardise".

"Gay" means "having or showing a merry, lively mood", "bright or showy", "dissipated" (the intented meaning here).

"Fags" is British slang for "cigarettes".

My suggestions for new warnings are the following. Please pick your favourite or suggest an alternative:

From the subtle "It takes one to smoke one" and "Fags queer you up"
to the mildly insulting:

"Fags are gay"

& for the person of lower intellect

"Only idiots smoke"

"Giving in to peer pressure is stupid"

I'm glad this has stimulated some healthy debate.

As for looking cool... would one feel cool if the packets said "It takes one to smoke one" - i.e. it takes a *** to smoke a ***.

Quite different from a health warning which makes the smoker feel they must be triple hard to put their health at risk.

I agree they should pay higher health insurance (National Insurance in the UK). Smokers who argue that the tobacco tax will pay for their lung transplant surgery and chemotherapy are deluding themselves. Those taxes go to dole scum so they can afford fags and beer.

If anyone remembers the Superman "Not so fast Nick-O-Tine" adverts in the 70s, they will realise that education doesn't work.

Banning smoking in public places is an excellent place to start. When I was in New York, it was funny to watch the smokers, looking like a bunch of lepers, standing outside in the rain while I enjoyed my meal in fresh air in a nice warm restaurant. Can't wait for the smoking ban to come to England.

Answer 1

smokers need to be insulted. they are the single source of terminal sickness and death in our country and its prohibitive health cost smokers should have to pay three times the cost of heallth insurance.smokers should placed in the same catagory as drug addicts and be punished by the same laws.they all stink like dirty ash trays

Answer 2

No - it actually might make them more appealing. I recall as a youth when I first read the "Surgeon Generals Warning" on the side of a pack I laughed my head of and showed it to all my pals. Didn't make a lick of difference. I smoked from 13-22 then quit. Not because anyone said I should but because I was pregnant and knew that smoking could make my labor worse. I had to have a personal reason to quit. If i had seen the kind of label you propose I would have probably started a collage on my locker or notebook to see how many I could collect. Truth be told all of these anti-smoking ads on TV make me want to start again after 20 years because they remind me of the humor in it. Health aside it was a funny habit.

Answer 3

increase taxation greatly. or stop selling cigs to under 18's. but every year increase the age by one. so eventually all the smoking generations will die off, and we'll have a smoke-free society.

also put companies out of buisiness who sell 'um.

however, illegalising smoking will just create another illegal drugs situation. people will always get them on the black market.

banning smoking in public places has helped significantly in scotland. therefore i believe that increasing the taxes puton cigarettes will discourage teenagers from starting in the first place. obviously, most will still indulge at some point. however, school kids would not be able to afford the prices i am suggesting are put in place, ad therefore would not be smoking regualrly enough to establish the habit in the first place.

packets of cigarettes should say "causes premature mortality", or a dumber version for the more illiterate in this fine country.

just my opinion

Answer 4

How about this:

"The Surgeon General has determined that cigarettes are hazardous to your helth. You should really pay attention to this warning despite the obvious lies and exaggerations of the jackasses who run around trying to force you to quit just because they like throwing their waight around. Just because they are jerks is no reason to start smoking and endanger your own health."

Answer 5

Attacking the person instead of the behavior would never work. People with low self-esteem would agree with the labels and take up smoking in record numbers.

Actually, you might be on to something there, bwa ha ha ha haaa

Answer 6

You'll never stop smokers with slogans. Never. They don't care, they want their fix or to look "cool" or whatever it is and nothing will get in the way of that. They want to destroy their own health and pay for the privilege and that's it.

Answer 7

Leave us smokers alone you muppet. How about putting insulting insulting messages on fatty food against tubby folks. And all this "for the sake of our children sh!t" is what peadophiles always say you kiddy fiddler, I don't give two sh!ts about your kids much as you shouldn't give a monkeys about my smoking habit.

Answer 8

Think again. Definitely NOT the way, that way will only harden attitudes, besides that, insults only bring you down to their non thinking level. The only way is through education.

Answer 9

Yeah, maybe something like:

THE SURGEON GENERAL HAS BEEN PAID OFF AND?OR DOESN"T KNOW OR CARE ANYMORE> THESE WILL KILL YOU. ONE THIRD OF PEOPLE WHO SMOKE WILL DIE FROM IT< USUALLY IN A REALLY PAINFUL WAY.

Answer 10

I'm very comfortable with your suggestion, provided we can put similar "notices" on:

Religious leaders and their publcations.

Politicians and their spin.

Anyone who TELLS you what's bad and ends the sentence with "And we wouldn't want that, would we?".