France airs death flick to stun smokers

‘‘This is not an actor but a real victim. This is a realism that has been widely used in campaigns in English-speaking countries but is new to France,’’ said the National Committee Against Smoking, which produced the film.

‘‘This film is the voluntary testimony of an ill man to the decline in his health, made with the support of his family,’’ it added of the broadcast, shown for the first time just before the main evening news of top commercial broadcaster TF1.

Long a mainstay of cinema and cafe culture, smoking is far more tolerated in France than in the US and other countries where national anti-tobacco lobbies have long been raising public awareness of its health risks.

More than 20,000 French die of lung cancer a year, with thousands more succumbing to other smoking-related illnesses. The death rate is expected to rise in coming years following a recent increase in teenage smoking.

The broadcast follows a campaign in June which mimicked a public information announcement displaying a telephone number at which viewers could get information on a consumer product found to include traces of mercury, ammonia and other chemicals.

Nearly a million called, to be told the product was a cigarette. French media questioned whether it was right to provoke such panic, but the INPES health education council behind the campaign insisted it was justified.

Shock tactics also featured in a recent public safety broadcast focusing on another risky French tendency — forgetting to wear a safety belt when driving on roads with one of the worst death tolls in Europe.