Reverse Psychology

I heard that cigarette packaging is going to take a dramatic turn. 50% of the package will be dedicated to anti smoking ads. That is a complete turnaround from the glitzy film star glamor advertising that enticed my mother till her dying day. I smoked for over 30 years and most of them with the tortured awareness that it wasn't good for me. I can remember a field trip to COSI and an exhibit showing the difference between a coal miners lung and a lifelong smokers lung. They even passed a lung around for us to handle. It is not likely that the macabre packaging being proposed and brought into law will change a dedicated smoker. Maybe it will change young upstarting smokers though. I spent some time looking at the proposed ads this morning. The ugly teeth, the tracheotomy exhale, the corpse with the morgue tag on the toe. I didn't see any new ad that can convey the continuous poverty and desperation that I felt when I smoked. That would be a hard photo op.