Warnings Of Cigarette Packets, Graphic Essay, Research Paper
An Australian group called Action Council on Smoking and Health (ACSH) has
recently pushed for warnings on cigarette packets to be more graphic. They
suggested graphic photos of diseases organs should cover at least 50% of the
outside label. Additional health warnings with information s on how to quit and
smoking risks should also be included inside the cigarette packet. Bland and
ineffective warnings like “Smoking is a health hazard” and “Smoking reduces your
fitness” already cover our cigarette packets in hope that they may deter smokers
form their addiction. This proposal has raised some questions that should be
carefully considered. Are the current cigarette packet warnings really enough?
If so then why are 4 out of 5 drug associated deaths tobacco related? If so then
why are 1 out of 5 of our supposedly drug-aware generation of teenagers still
ignoring such warnings and continuing to have a puff with their peers? Obviously
the during anti-smoking cigarette packet designs are not conveying their message
effectively. Replacing those uninfluential warnings with hard-hitting, graphic
photos will provide a powerful visual gorge to help smokers quit for the better.
The current cautions on cigarette packets have little or no impact on the
smoker. Smokers are growing immune to warnings like “Smoking Causes heart
disease” that was composed in 1994. This outdated campaign is focused on
abstract tobacco related risks and illnesses that are interpreted by smokers in
ways like, “This won’t happen to me” or “I can worry about it later.” Meanwhile,
the new tactics is concentrated on the perspective of an individual smoker and
the pictures show exactly what is happening to their body each time they smoke.
This is related to the peop
influence their behaviour rather than plain facts and figures. On average
smokers handle their packets 20-30 times a day. So if graphic pictures on
cigarette packets were introduced, they would have 20-30 chances to face the
harsh reality of what damage they are doing to themselves each time they light
up.
As we have all seen on television, in the recent graphic-TV-ad campaign, the
middle-aged man lights up his cigarette in his car. We are next taken on a
journey into his mouth and then met face to face with a gruesome eyeball staring
straight at us, held open by surgical tweezers. We would rather not watch that
commercial because of its daunting truth, “Smoking causes irreversible
blindness”. Imagine handling a packet of cigarettes with that fearful eye
staring into ours. It is confronting. It is a disturbing reminder that has a
lasting effect than “Smoking Kills” plainly printed on the packet.
Along with the pictures on the outside label, additional warnings and helpful
information should also be included with the packet of cigarettes. This is vital
because even an ordinary packet of Panadol in your bathroom cabinet has
displayed on the packet and on an extra insert, listing all the side effects of
Panadol. This is `tobacco’ we are talking about here; Tobacco, the silent yet
obnoxious murderer. `Tobacco’ the dried weed that contains the poisonous
nicotine that we still accept even though it kills one in two of its users.
What this comes down to is consumer rights. Smokers have the right to know what
they are inhaling, and what they are doing to themselves, but many do not. For
this reason alone, the recommendation for more graphic pictures and warnings on
cigarette packets should be seriously made allowance for.