Forget the namby-pamby cigarette warning label we have here in the United States. Here's a very graphic warning label from cartons of Malaysian clove cigarettes.
Alas, even these warning labels do not have much effect on smokers. From World Health Organization's Regional Office for the Western Pacific's smoking statistics:
- About half of all Malaysian men smoke.
- Every day about 50 teenagers below the age of 18 start smoking
- Studies show about 30% of adolescent boys (aged 12 to 18) smoke.
- Smoking among female teens is rising. According to two studies on teens conducted in 1996 and 1999, the numbers of female teens smoking rose from 4.8% to 8%. Overall, the 1999 study found nearly one in five teens smokes.
- Some studies have shown that lung cancer is rising at a rate of 17% a year.
- Although there are restrictions on advertising, tobacco companies have found ways to bypass these laws through using brand names and remain the top advertisers. Heavily advertised products include the Benson and Hedges bistro, Dunhill accessories, Marlboro clothing, Kent Horizon Tours and Salem Cool Planet concerts.
- Malaysia has been dubbed the "indirect advertising capital" of the world. Some of the tobacco industry's most blatant efforts to target young people can be seen here.
- Spending on tobacco advertising is extremely high. In 1997, the industry spent about $90 million, while in the year 2000, two tobacco firms alone reportedly spent more than US$40 million.
TYWKIWDBI has the larger pic: Link (as you'd imagine, the pictures are quite graphic - you've been warned)
I'm hopping to see no more smoke in the future
People laugh at them in the pubs and compair to see "who has the worst"
anyway, fyi the ciggies in the picture is indonesian made. i was surprised to know that they actually export that brand to malaysia.
we have the exact same graphic illustrations on TV advertisements and printed on all our ciggeratte packs here in Singapore + the cost of a pack of ciggies is priced high (around the cost of 3 big macs in Sporeland) to deter smoking.
despite all these, ciggarettes are still being lit up everyday, increasing number of young ones are picking up the smoke. if anything, it has effectively turned us into a nation of evolved graphic-visual immunity (whatever that means :p)