shockporn on cigarette packs...

[Smitty]

News link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162- ... 91704.html

Forgive me if this has been discussed before. Anyway, basically the FDA wants cigarette companies to include, basically, shockporn images of corpses, cancer patients, diseased organs, etc. on cigarette packaging. Personally, I find this utterly offensive and in such poor taste it's unbelievable. What the hell gives? What country is this??? SERIOUSLY???

From what I heard today, the lawsuits will keep this from happening for a few years but it still leaves me incredibly unsettled that anyone, much less a supposedly educated government official, would thing that this was a good idea.

I just hope that asteroid veers off course a tad and blows this whole mess that's been created for us up in a giant fart flame. /rant

[KevLa]

...What country is this???...

England? Seriously, though, we've had these things for a while. They're pretty disgusting, but one tends not to notice them after a while. In fact, one such image is of a nice clean-looking lung next to a horrible, filthy-looking lung. So few people seem to realise that smoking (even when inhaling the smoke) doesn't actually do that to your lungs. Coal-mining, perhaps, but not smoking. So, in other words, it is deception. And once people do realise that one has lied to them at least once, they have a tendency not to believe anything one tells them.

[texaspilgrim]

Hold on now! Your saying the government lies? Yes, those pictures are horrible, but they put them there for our own good. The government is here to help us. That is why they shower us with so many rules and regulations. Think of all the thousands of people who stopped smoking because of those pictures. I feel so secure because of the government looking after me that I now go into a fetal position and suck my thumb knowing that I have nothing to worry about.

[KevLa]

Hold on now! Your saying the government lies? Yes, those pictures are horrible, but they put them there for our own good. The government is here to help us. That is why they shower us with so many rules and regulations. Think of all the thousands of people who stopped smoking because of those pictures. I feel so secure because of the government looking after me that I now go into a fetal position and suck my thumb knowing that I have nothing to worry about.

That simply has to be that rarest of blooms: American Sarcasm

[francism]

Huh, a bunch of underage smokers I sat behind on a bus once, were discussing the pictures, trying to complete the set.

I don't think the gov thought this one through.
No smoker is going to give up smoking cos of this, its making them stand outside for hours in the cold, and that just makes lots of smokers smoke in their own homes, stopping spending in pubs or cafe, You gotta love the gov,

[KevLa]

...I don't think the gov thought this one through. No smoker is going to give up smoking cos of this...

On the contrary, I believe that the government have probably thought this through quite well. "How can we appear to be trying to help people to quit smoking, without impacting significantly on the amount of money we make through tobacco tax?", they ask themselves...You know the rest
We even have these labels on the underside of our tins of pipe tobacco, here in the United Kingdom. It is perfectly possible to walk into a tobacconist's (if you can find one) and buy a tin of tobacco, to smoke in one's pipe without any intention of inhaling said smoke, and on the underside of said tin it'll have a picture of a coal-miner's lung with something along the lines of "Smoking causes lung cancer" written next to it!
If one wants to educate people as to the realities of a particular drug, recreational or otherwise, legal or otherwise, the first thing to do, in my opinion, is to tell them the truth. And that never happens

[Falconeer]

...as I have said before - Question -"How do you know when a politician is lying?"; Answer -"His lips are moving"

Gerry

[ScotsJim]

Huh, a bunch of underage smokers I sat behind on a bus once, were discussing the pictures, trying to complete the set.

Nearly spilled me cuppa laughing. Kids eh ?

[ScotsJim]

Never mind tobacco tins and cigarette packets. I know of a thing showing images of how to live your life, what stupid religion to follow, what idiotic political party to vote for, and urging you to be a good little consumer and consume. It's called TV. I have one. It occasionally shows good movies and documentaries, but it's mainly full of stupid shit.

Mine is fitted with a Brightness buttom. I turned it up full, but it doesn't work

[aquaholic]

Mine is fitted with a Brightness buttom. I turned it up full, but it doesn't work

[bearded1]

Excessive "sin" taxes haven't stopped people from smoking, pictures will do no good either. In fairness, I'd expect to see gruesome pictures of diseased livers and glossy drunk driving fatalities on beer, wine and spirits too. In fact, let's also put pictures of morbidly obese people on fast food wrappers and soft drink cans.

[Smitty]

In fairness, I'd expect to see gruesome pictures of diseased livers and glossy drunk driving fatalities on beer, wine and spirits too. In fact, let's also put pictures of morbidly obese people on fast food wrappers and soft drink cans.

It won't be long.

[ScotsJim]

Excessive "sin" taxes haven't stopped people from smoking, pictures will do no good either. In fairness, I'd expect to see gruesome pictures of diseased livers and glossy drunk driving fatalities on beer, wine and spirits too. In fact, let's also put pictures of morbidly obese people on fast food wrappers and soft drink cans.

Pictures of "infidels" being beheaded on covers of every Koran

Pictures of slaughtered animals on meat products

Pictures of "witches" burning on covers of every Bible

Pictures of fallen trees on timber

Diagrams of damage to the ozone layer on aerosols

Barren beaches, oil slicks, and dying wildlife paintings on the sides of oil tankers

Photos of the tons of junk orbiting Earth on every mobile with GPRS capability

Photos of fat stinking bankers and their families on every bank note

Stickers depicting cash registers ringing on every tacky Xmas trinket

"Warning - Biased lies contained therein" quoted on every newspaper

Like driving tests before you can drive a car, people should be made to sit some sort of exam before being allowed to have children.

Aye

[bearded1]

Like driving tests before you can drive a car, people should be made to sit some sort of exam before being allowed to have children.

Aye

Ah, and marriage should be extremely hard to get and divorces extremely easy.

[ScotsJim]

Like driving tests before you can drive a car, people should be made to sit some sort of exam before being allowed to have children.

Aye

Ah, and marriage should be extremely hard to get and divorces extremely easy.

You should be made to undertake the most severe psychiatric testing before entering into marriage. I am on my second marriage, so I'd almost certainly fail the test and be sectioned / committed

P.S. Divorces are easy....if you sign everything you own over to her.

[francism]

blatantly stolen from elsewhere on the net.
comming soon (hopefully) to a carpark near you.

[Taspiper]

Here we have the images and they also want to introduce plain packaging for all cigarette packets, no branding. I'm not sure if this extends to all tobacco products. Not sure when it's coming in but it may be held up in the courts.

I would also like to know where the government will get its next tax from if they lost tobacco tax.

[Wez]

I would also like to know where the government will get its next tax from if they lost tobacco tax.

This is where I think Kevla makes a good point in saying that the governments are trying to be seen as anti-smoking but in the same breath are wanting people to continue smoking.

[Smitty]

The bottom line is that it's none of the government's business.

[texaspilgrim]

None of their business is right. I think a lot of people today were not raised with proper parents so they feel a need to be told what is good and what is bad for them. So they put the blinders on and follow. Life is a set of stupid rules and taxes put in place by people who don't know poo poo about anything other than how to make rules and invent new taxes. You can't do this but we'll let you do that if you pay us. You must let us feel your parts or you can't fly. You don't have ID? Your under arrest.