Belgium to screen gory anti-smoking ads

26 April 2004

BRUSSELS – Belgian television is to screen a series of particularly gruesome anti-smoking films, which will highlight the damage tobacco does to people’s health, it was reported on Tuesday.

Newspaper La Derniere Heure said the ads would be shown regularly over the coming month.

They will show the way tobacco smoke affects different parts of the body after it has been inhaled, the newspaper added.

The hard-hitting adverts will focus on particular parts of the body including the lungs, the eyes, the brain and the heart.

“The subject of this campaign will certainly spark a debate and even shock certain sensitive people,” said the Fondation Rodin, the Belgian anti-smoking lobby behind the campaign.

“That is our choice. It is important that the dangers of smoking are made known, without turning away from the facts, without filters,” the organisation added.

Each advertisement will push home the same message: “Every cigarette destroys you.”

The advertisements have already been screened in Norway and Ireland, where they seem to have helped reduce the number of people smoking.

Subject: Belgian news