French Warning Labels

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scloyd

Lifer
May 23, 2018
5,941
12,036
A couple of weeks ago I was sitting at CDG airport in Paris waiting to board a flight home. With some time to kill I decided to check out the duty-free shop. I purchased a box of five Montecristo #5 Cuban cigars to bring home to my son (he smokes a pipe and cigars). The warning labels fill almost the entire top and bottom of the box. These seem a little tame compared to some of the others.
Translation: Smoking increases the risk of impotence.

img_1129-edited-415x600.jpg


Translation: Smoking decreases fertility.

img_1130-edited-408x600.jpg


This was the only side without a warning label.

img_1131-edited-600x160.jpg


 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,603
14,669
The over-the-top stupidity, crassness and absurdity of modern anti-tobacco propaganda is now either at or surpassing that of something like reefer madness.
Serves to illustrate how nothing has changed from those days...except that it's tobacco in the crosshairs now.

 

jaytex1969

Lifer
Jun 6, 2017
9,517
50,591
Here
A coworker visited France a few months ago and I requested a pouch or two of local tobacco.
Both had ugly graphics designed to dissuade consumers. Although poorly photographed (by me), this pouch of Caporal Export shows a photo of a mouth full of rotting teeth, showing that lack of dental hygiene may interfere with the enjoyment of a pipe...
tooth-600x338.jpg

Of course, we have our own issues here is the US, as well.
grape.jpg

jay-roger.jpg


 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,603
14,669
^ Vous, les américains, et votre stupide capitaine Black Grape. Aucun français ne serait jamais polluer sa pipe avec un tel mélange ridicule.

 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
11,699
16,207
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
Cool. I collect such when I'm in Europe to bring home and show my friends. I'm not sure how effective ads are. I'm guessing parents are still a superior method of dissuading the younger, potential smokers. Probably Hollywood no longer pushing smoking as sexy and urbane is the singular most effective method of suppressing smoking.

 

jazz

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 17, 2014
813
65
UK
It's not just France. It's the same in the UK and I think all of the EU.

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,250
108,355
So if CB Grape can cause that, what would low quality blends like Esoterica cause?

 

mikethompson

Lifer
Jun 26, 2016
11,292
23,327
Near Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Canadian cigarettes have very similar packaging if I'm not mistaken, with the images and everything. I don't think there is anything on pipe tobacco tins or pouches though. There is also some talk of 'plain packaging', which would homogenize colours and appearance.

 

madox07

Lifer
Dec 12, 2016
1,823
1,689
Yeah ... very disturbing, it's the new EU legislation. Funny thing is that I never read any statistics correlating the use of such warnings and an increase of quitting smoking among the general population.

 
I've said this before, but to fight this, the best way would be to embrace the health labels. Make t-shirts and wear them. Sell them at pipe shows and pipe shops, or anywhere tobacco is sold. Put them on lighters, bumper stickers, coffee mugs. Embrace the pictures of teeth and lungs as cool. Griping about them plays into exactly what they want you to do. This is what the expect. Every time someone grimaces in disgust, you make a tobacco-nazi smile with happiness. Get them out everywhere, and pretty soon the idea would go away.

 

eaglewriter1

Starting to Get Obsessed
Sep 22, 2018
171
8
The realy funny thing is, that many of these so called "Shocking" pictures put on tobacco products in the EU are NOT actual pictures of conditions caused by tobacco but other afflictions that just look horrifying. Yes, smoking can have SIMILIAR effects but its kind of hilarious that they could not even be bothered to pick pictures that show the actual consequences.

( Also take this with a grain of salt , because I dont remeber the source for this one^^)

 

scloyd

Lifer
May 23, 2018
5,941
12,036
Make t-shirts and wear them.

If I saw someone wearing a t-shirt with one of these labels on them I would think they were some anti-smoking tool. A coffee mug? I'd probably buy one for my morning tea.

 
Wear the t-shirt, while smoking. It would be the perfect irony. But, myself, I don't really wear t-shirts except in the yard. But, I am thinking about making some buttons... for my hat maybe.
Also, what anti-smoking person would wear this? They would more likely wear a red circle with a hash through a cigarette type of thing.

 

jvnshr

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 4, 2015
4,616
3,868
Baku, Azerbaijan
The realy funny thing is, that many of these so called "Shocking" pictures put on tobacco products in the EU are NOT actual pictures of conditions caused by tobacco but other afflictions that just look horrifying. Yes, smoking can have SIMILIAR effects but its kind of hilarious that they could not even be bothered to pick pictures that show the actual consequences.

( Also take this with a grain of salt , because I dont remeber the source for this one^^)
Something similar happened in Turkey in 2011; they took a picture of a guy who was in coma and printed it on cigarette packs:
4.jpg

He got fired from his job, his wife asked him to stay away from their 1 year old daughter and later left the house, his friends and relatives started moving away from him thinking he had some kind of contagious disease, he sold his house and car because he couldn't find a job, later he opened a small cafe but people stopped buying from him because of the same reason. In the end, he had to move out of his village. The interesting part is, he was in coma because of a non-tobacco related issue. Later he filed a lawsuit against the government.

 

molach95

Starting to Get Obsessed
Dec 19, 2017
108
2
I often wonder why they have pictures like these on pipe tobacco and fine Cuban cigar boxes but don't cover single malt whisky bottles in pictures of jaundiced stomachs bloated with cirrhotic livers, or kids/women with black eyes and bruises. Maybe if they force through legislation to ensure all the whisky labels are vomit green with tiny, illegible writing and the alcohol is all behind metal doors with no labels (as it is with tobacco in UK supermarkets now) we'll have more people realising how daft this is.

 
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