New French anti-smoking ad carries message,stirs debate

A new French anti-smoking advertisement aimed at the young that plays off a pornographic stereotype has gotten more...

A new French anti-smoking advertisement aimed at the young that plays off a pornographic stereotype has gotten more attention than even its creators intended,with critics suggesting that it offends common decency and creates a false analogy between oral sex and smoking.

France has banned smoking in cafes,bars and restaurants. But smoking is still increasing among the young in France,according to the French Office for the Prevention of Smoking,prompting an anti-tobacco organisation Droits des Non-fumeurs,or Nonsmokers Rights,to create the ad.

The slogan is bland enough: To smoke is to be a slave to tobacco. But it accompanies photographs of an older man,his torso seen from the side,pushing down on the head of a teenage girl with a cigarette in her mouth. Her eyes are at belt level,glancing upward fearfully. The cigarette appears to emerge from the adults trousers.

Two other ads show young men in the same position as the girl,though in those cases the adult is wearing a suit jacket and a watch.

Marco de la Fuente,vice-president of BDDP amp; Fils,the advertising firm that created the campaign,said the ads were not designed either to please or to shock people,but to change,to put back into the news a topic we dont talk about enough,which threatens young people.

According to the French Office for the Prevention of Smoking,between 2004 and 2007,and 2008 and 2009,the percentage of daily smokers among French 14-year-olds rose to 8 per cent from 5 per cent; among 16-year-olds,it increased to 18 per cent from 14 per cent. A quarter of 18-year-olds are daily smokers.

The younger you begin to smoke,the stronger the addiction, de la Fuente said in an interview. But young people think theyre invincible. They like to flirt with danger. He added that young people see smoking as a symbol of emancipation,as a passage to adulthood and a transgressive act.

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The campaigns intent,he said,is to convince young people that smoking is instead an act of naivete and submission. But the reaction on the website of Droits des Non-fumeurs has been mixed. One comment read,The campaign trivialises sexual abuse worse,it implies guilt on the part of the abused.

Florence Montreynaud,president of La Meute des Chiennes de Garde,or the Pack of Female Watchdogs,called the ads unbearable and said what is most shocking is the banalisation of sexual violence.