Whoa. These are bold. Check out the FDA’s proposed cigarette product warning labels.
Designed to cover half of a pack’s surface area, the labels are intended to spur smokers to quit by providing graphic reminders of tobacco’s dangers [e.g., guy taking a drag via throat hole]. The labels are required under a law passed last year that gave the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products for the first time.
The Awl’s Alex Balk (a smoker) offers this:
I’ll tell you what: As a smoker, I have no objection to this. I know I’m going to die. (So are you, non-smokers!) I don’t have any illusions that when I’m drawing that sweet nicotine into my lungs I’m actually doing something healthy for myself. So this is fine. I’m happy to see a little extra graphic design on my pack of cigarettes. It’s pretty bland right now, it’ll be nice for them to shake things up a bit.