Hitler Bad. Cigarettes Even Badder.

Further to an earlier Jukebox post ("Smoke and Fire"), a ridiculous campaign by Brazil's F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi agency that basically tells us that cigarettes are more evil than Hitler. Note that it doesn't just say that many millions of people have died from smoking. They have to make, for some reason, a stupid and offensive comparison to get that point across.

But what else kills more than Hitler? Cars. Domestic accidents. Heart attacks (or, rather, fatty foods and alcohol). All sorts of things, in fact. So it'd be quite easy, say, for health councils to make Hitler faces out of hamburgers or bottles of beer. Or for road safety campaigners to form parked cars into the shape of a swastika. And they could all carry a variation on the same line: "Fatty foods/Alcohol/Cars etc. kill more". Brlliant.

Millions murdered at the hands of a genocidal maniac and they think it's appropriate to compare it with people who die from something they choose to indulge in - something, moreover, that anyone over the age of three knows is very bad for you?

And what do they think this ad will achieve? It's been proven that trying to get people to stop smoking by telling them that many people die from smoking just doesn't work. Which is probably something the agency is fully aware of - hence this crass, and rather desperate, campaign that, at best, might get a bit of attention for the agency.