Smoke and Fire

Anti-smoking types are always a worry. Even after significant victories (such as banning smoking in public places and casting smokers as society's biggest pariahs - at just a notch below child molesters) they refuse to let things lie. Fanaticism of any kind is disturbing, but these lot are in a league of their own.

Take the ad below. No doubt there are those who would applaud its audacity and make all sorts of claims for its creativity. But they'd be wrong to do so. What are we supposed to take from it? That while innocent people being murdered is all very tragic, it's much more tragic that people die from indulging in a habit that they, by and large, choose to indulge in? The only comparison between the two is that dead people are involved.

The line at the bottom reads: "Terrorism-related deaths since 2001: 11,377. Tobacco-related deaths since 2001: 30,000,000."

But maybe it's fine to make these kinds of fatuous comparisons. How about the chimneys of Auschwitz made to look like giant cigarettes with the line: "6 million dead? Nothing compared to the many millions who have died since 1945 from smoking." Or a picture of Pol Pot (or Stalin or Mao) tugging on a cigar while standing in front of a huge pile of human skulls. And why stop at genocide and murder? They could have a huge photograph of starving African children and make the point that more people die from smoking every year. Why not? If the people who died in 9/11 are considered fair game, then so should everyone else. And look how easy it is to achieve as a campaign - it could run for years making those kinds of comparisons.

Of course, the agency responsible would probably argue that it's just about numbers, about making people think about the sheer amount of deaths from smoking. If that's the case, state it. Don't go using the deaths of other people (who have got nothing to do with your cause) as part of your cause. Otherwise it just comes across as cheap, and easy, sensationalism.