A subversive anti-smoking campaign of the association of non-smokers Rights (TDR), February 2010

Résumé du document

This very subversive poster is the new anti-smoking campaign. It was launched at the beginning of the week and immediately started a huge controversy. No need to explain why. In this photo, young adults are represented smoking as if they were giving a blowjob under duress. It is quite obvious to understand why Roselyne Bachelot, French health minister, said yesterday that this campaign was 'totally inappropriate'.

Extraits

[...] We did not use the image of teenagers or children”, he says. Not only does he dismiss all the accusations, but he even claims that these images show an agreed sexual relationship that can be assimilated to the agreed submission to smoking. In other words, the wealthy suit-man could be seen as the extremely well-developed smoking industry and all the lobbies that support it. The main problem in this campaign is the fact that there is absolutely no humor but a lot of disturbing and ambiguous feelings. [...]

[...] Therefore this campaign raises one interesting questions among several others: why did DNF create such a controversial picture? Are they completely dedicated to the anti-smoking struggle? In conclusion, I still can decide whether I think this campaign is inappropriate and totally out of place or only a huge media hype. Of course, these images are shocking but do they really worth all this excitement? Eventually more people have seen the campaign because of Roselyne Bachelot's statements compared to the impact it could have had otherwise. [...]

[...] can use shocking images to struggle against nicotine addiction”, she adds. we do not need to use such violent and disturbing sexual connotations.” As many other people, she is afraid that these images could eventually be counterproductive. The DNF -Association du Droit des Non-Fumeurs- claims that this kind of campaign is nowadays necessary to target the younger smokers, who are supposedly less receptive to health risks of smoking. According to the agency that creates it, this campaign aims at denouncing the whole smoking industry. [...]

[...] Usually, anti-smoking campaigns just show very shocking images of what could happen to smokers' bodies and health. None of them ever attempts to use the slightest sense of humor and none of them triggers such fierce protests. But they were all showing realistic risks and no one could honestly deny it. In this latest campaign, the controversy comes from the interpretation you may have. Many Internet users actually do not understand it and do not get the point of such a campaign. [...]