The Picture on the Pack

I just got back from a week's trip to northern Chile; mostly a vacation, but also a chance to see what Chileans are doing about the country's smoking problem. Suffice to say, it's more than we do in the US.

The picture above shows what every smoker in Chile has to look at when he or she pulls out some smokes: a gruesome close-up of a set of snaggled, stained teeth set in some funky gums, all of them ruined by tobacco. Apparently, a two-year old Chilean law mandates that half the space on a pack must carry anti-smoking messages specified by the government. Packs used to feature a grim, explicit photo of a Chilean smoker who lost his larynx to cancer; he has since died.

The consistent warning message on the pack, a masterpiece of blunt health education, reads: “ The smoke of each cigarette you smoke contains, along with other toxic products: tar, which causes cancer; nicotine, which makes you addicted; carbon monoxide, a toxic gas like that from tailpipes; and arsenic, a chemical used as rat poison.”

And yet, Chile has the highest tobacco consumption in all of South America. 40% of the general population smokes, as do 45% of women of childbearing age; thanks to vigorous efforts by the tobacco industry’s advertisers, this is the highest smoking rate among women in the world.

It’s not something the government health folks are ignoring, obviously; the health education campaign is accompanied by laws firmly restricting cigarette advertizing in media, creating no-smoking zones in restaurants and bars; and banning ads and sales within a certain distance of schools. It's good public health--social marketing and social engineering. But given the number of young kids—maybe 12, 13 years old— we saw in Arica wielding that ugly-looking pack and puffing away, the messages may have to cover the whole box before they truly get people’s attention.