By Jim Gogek
By now, we’ve all seen the new generation of pictorial health warnings gracing tobacco packs in enlightened countries, though not yet in the United States, which is falling behind other nations in tobacco prevention. One of the great victories in the war against the global tobacco epidemic has been Australia’s move to plain packaging with graphic warnings for cigarette packs.
In August 2012, the government prevailed in Australia’s highest court against Big Tobacco, which was trying to block plain packaging and pictorial warnings. Big Tobacco knows such warnings are effective. Many studies have shown it, including a study just published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine showing that graphic health warnings are effective across all socioeconomic and racial lines. This is really important, because special populations have been hardest hit in the global tobacco epidemic, in part because the tobacco industry has been targeting poor people and ethnic groups.
But the gruesome, accurate warnings aren’t the only graphic images used in Australia’s battle against Big Tobacco. Australia’s editorial cartoonists created graphic images of their own: