Not-so-gory ads to put off smokers

Havans, not-so-gory pictures, public outings and celebrity sightings.

Not-so-gory ads to put off smokers

Havans, not-so-gory pictures, public outings and celebrity sightings. This and much more took place at a city hotel ballroom on Saturday morning when four advertising agencies put forth their prototypes for the new pictorial warnings on cigarette boxes. Among the visuals presented were deflated condoms (suggesting that smoking causes impotence) and those of pretty children, to put across the message of passive smoking.

However, even as World Tobacco Day and the deadline for pictorial warnings approaches, Sunday MiD DAY asked paanwallahs across the city and found that more than 50 per cent of sales to customers didn't involve boxes at all, since cigarettes are sold loose to most.

Take Rajesh Patel who sells over 200 cigarettes per day to students, doctors and residents on the KEM road.

"Out of ten, five will buy loose cigarettes. I'm not worried, I don't think it will make a difference," said Patel.

It's ditto for Irshad Khan, who has been running a cigarette shop for 30 years at Byculla station. "Seventy per cent of my customers buy loose cigarettes," he said.

However, Rehmat Khan, who sells cigarettes on Linking Road at Bandra, feels that profits are bound to dip.

WHO representative to India Dr Salim Habayeb agrees that the habit, peculiar to only few countries like India, is a challenge. "That doesn't mean that we shouldn't implement something good because a sub-group like this exists. The point of the pictorial warning is to deter the person to an extent that he also advises his friends to quit smoking. This peer pressure is effective," said Habayeb, on the sidelines of the Cancer Patients Aid Association World No Tobbaco Day event.

A cricket match will be held between Bollywood stars and doctors on Monday to generate awareness.