Tuesday
Jun172008
Egyptian anti-smoking warning labels
Issandr El Amrani
Egyptian health officials have been gearing up for anti-smoking campaign for a few months, and a few weeks ago new warning labels appeared on the humble Masri pack of Cleopatras and other local and international brands. It's a big marketing shift in a country of permanent smokers where the state-owned monopoly cigarette manufacturer, Oriental Tobacco, has never had to deal with any real pressure on public health issues and the price of cigarettes is almost as politically strategic as the price of baladi bread, and where illnesses that can be caused or exarcebated by smoking, such as heart disease, are a major cause of deaths.
The AP has a story out on the new labels, and the gory labels themselves are after the jump.
The AP has a story out on the new labels, and the gory labels themselves are after the jump.
CAIRO, Egypt - Offering a cigarette is as common as a handshake in Egypt, where the culture of smoking is so entrenched that patients and friends sometimes light up in hospital rooms. But now, the government is finally getting serious about the health risks, launching a new campaign of stark visual warnings about tobacco's dangers.
Starting Aug. 1, cigarette labels in Egypt will be required to carry images of the effects of smoking: a dying man in an oxygen mask, a coughing child, and a limp cigarette symbolizing impotence.
It's a major step in Egypt's fledgling anti-smoking campaign and a dramatic change in a country where public discussion of smoking's health risks is nearly nonexistent.
. . .
For the new label requirements, authorities field-tested a variety of images.
They found that warnings linking tobacco with death were not particularly effective with Egyptians, since dying is perceived as inevitable anyway. Also, images of diseased lungs left people confused about what was being shown.
Instead, the new warnings focus on threats to health and, particularly, to family, like the effect on children and pregnant women and the risk of impotence. Numerous studies, including a 2003 report by Tulane University researchers, have found that smoking can be a major cause of erectile disfunction, in part because it constricts veins and arteries, reducing blood flow.
"We need something to give the smokers a shock that they are in great danger," said Dr. Mohammed Mehrez, head of the tobacco control department.
There are many myths to overcome.
Some Egyptians are convinced only light cigarettes lead to impotence. Earlier this year, the state-owned manufacturer Eastern Tobacco Company voluntarily put pictures of diseased lungs on some packs — but smokers just figured those packs were the ones that were harmful and switched to others, which some shopowners promptly started selling at a higher price.
[From Egypt's new tools in war on smoking: Stark warnings on impotence, disease]
Reader Comments (11)
LOVE the droopy cigarette in number 4.
Meanwhile in Amrika, it's quite the opposite - the NYT encourages Obama to smoke shaabi cigarettes to counter some of that effete herbal-tea-drinking bad press.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/opinion/17horwitz.html?ref=opinion
History shows again and agin that stupid iranian dogs only love droopy cigarettes. Arab cigarettes are straight and stand up like Nasser. His cigarette was big but Saddams cigarette was even bigger. And Saddam's regime which had been ensueing drastic grass root modernisation is not to be intimidated or cornered easily, especially with his articulate use of intelligent vocabulary that can always find him a way out. That reads, we are creating a new Middle- East order, so some slain Arabs are not really significant when set against a background of smoking droopy cigarettes.
I believe the state-owned cigarette company is "Eastern Tobacco," not "Oriental Tobacco," literal translations aside....
And, off the record, when the "droopy" cigarette image was field tested, about 95% of the men and the women didn't understand the symbolism. They were like, "whatever, it's a bent cigarette that someone picked up off the ground, because they were desperate and very addicted or something."
So that should testify as to the unequivocal straightness of the, ahem, Egyptian cigarette. They had nothing to reference the image to! (Or at least wouldn't admit to it. In a focus group at that.)
Only a couple of men got it, and thought it was fantastic, and their enthusiasm for it got it through the final cuts, as the thought was that if it was a slightly confusing image, people would talk about it, spurring discussion, which is a good thing when you're trying to bring about a major behavior change....
Me, I'm just confused. First it's "everyone put your raingear on!," you know, "wrap the little basha!" or however the command to muzzle members is going to be passed down to the great horny multitudes, and then it's "tsk tsk, that cigarette's got to go." First you have to do it with some cheap prophylactic made of recycled tractor tires wrapped around your dick, and then you have to forgo the post-coital nicotine rush. What's next? No more car horns? A ban on guard-hut sex? I sense the hand of a killjoy Welsh granny in this. "Hosni, I looked out the window the other day and I saw one of those, you know, those people, those little dirty people, and it was smiling. Now I want you to do something about that Hosni. Hosni? Are you listening to me? I want you to wipe that nasty little grin off its face!"
Am not sure if the smoking leads to impotence thing will work in Egypt because despite the pervasive smoking, there's such a high birth rate! So, clearly enough men are still able to, um, get it up.
Mc is dead meat! It is finished. I will teach that pig how it is like to mess with the masters of his dirty mother
well if they DID get it it would a very effective deterrent. i've found few greater causes for concern among the egyptian populace.
although i think a scan of an insane doctor's bill would be quite effective as well...
Fatalism is a grass root value in Egypt. Unfortunately education and piling petro-dollars out of living like lice in Kuwait don't help.
A radical cultural change is what Egypt really needs. Alas such change will have a dominos effect in a region floating over the world's almost entire energy reserves. That is why the region is frequently subjected to exogenous shocks so as to maintain the historical paths of this region conforming with the prevalent world order
Fatalistic people end up being passive, no matter how much they deny it by parroting cool slogans they watch in American movies or reading books which they totally fail to internalise, although they can probably enjoy the semantics of what they pretend to be doing. And eventually being passive pours into a highly static persona who make up for their deplorable status of which they are very conscious by resorting to pointing at people in a disgusting nouveau riche way ( they are no even rich sometimes), foul talking and carving at those who CAN. No wonder then, that our culture is so far incapable of holding off the “enemy”
I knew a girl in Cairo who simply hated herself because of her disproportionate crappy looks, mean obsequious natural disposition that is genetically transferred, in addition to being plagued by some religious “cult” that confounds servitude with goodness which only add up to the intractable plethora of complications infecting that girl .
That girl is a personification of our failed culture!
It's interesting to see how different cultures look at cigarette smoker. While Egyptian's view death as inevitable, Americans think they will live forever! I find this daily as a life insurance agent.
Interesting post.
I enjoy reading about other countries approaches to curb smoking. I'm not sure how effective these will be, and I won't be holding my breath for any studies to find out.
I hope they find a way to get the word out about the dangers of smoking.
Sincerely,
Tim Ferenchick, MD
Commit to Quit Smoking
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