Tobacco warnings to be ‘faceless’
A headless torso with a diseased lung will replace the controversial blurred image that appeared to be resembling footballer John Terry as the pictorial warning on cigarette packs soon.
The new photo has been used in Thailand so far. “We have taken the photo from the common-sharing code. There is no copyright issue here and we have been communicated that Thailand is agreeable to us using the same photo. The non-specific photo having same colour scheme and design as one used by Thailand will be soon notified. The preparatory work is going on,” said a senior official in the health ministry.
While the photo will be a replacement to the controversial “John Terry look alike” picture, the ministry is also mulling over more photos to give wider choice to the manufacturers. The ministry will soon finalise on the photos sent by the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) as well. The ministry had written to the DAVP to give them more options of photos for the tobacco manufacturers with a mandate that pictures should be “general”.
The ministry had got into a trouble after Mr Terry’s manager had threatened to sue the government over the alleged resemblance of the photo with the footballer. The picture that had an uncanny resemblance to the Chelsea captain was circulated in May 2011 to be used on tobacco packets marketed after December.
While the health ministry officials maintained that the existing photo was a mere sketch and did not relate to any person living or dead, the decision to change the picture was taken last month following the law ministry’s recommendation.
In their recommendation, the law ministry had said that the individual’s picture need not be put and instead the message to the masses about the injurious affects of smoking should not be diluted.
The photos were changed in 2011 from mild to harsh after a survey had suggested that the existing warnings were not proving to be effective.
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