Roaming with an air of carefreeness, while taking a routine evening and meditative walk along a quiet path that is surrounded by dense plantations, I stumbled upon a pack of cigarettes. Mindlessly, I picked up the pack. It was empty—not like I cared about its emptiness or otherwise.
As the pack lay harmlessly on my tender palm, my eyes travelled through the write-ups on its surface. This is the first time I'll be taking a closer look at the inscriptions on cigarette packs.
"SMOKING CAUSES LUNG CANCER."
That was the first inscription my gaze rested on. There's absolutely no way anyone could've missed that, not to mention my prying eyes.
The inscription is bold, like a headline, and designed to grab immediate attention. It is centred on one of the larger surfaces of the pack and printed in uppercase letters with black ink against a white background to provide a perfect contrast.
Under the texts are two diagrams, representing different lungs, labelled "non-smoker's lungs" and "smoker's lungs," respectively.
The non-smoker's lungs look bright—it's a no-brainer that the brightness signifies healthiness. How about that of a smoker? dark—somewhat of an eyesore—shitty—unhealthy.
As someone who's been writing copy and product descriptions for brands, my curiosity was piqued. I flipped the pack intermittently, just so I could peruse the content written on the remaining five different surfaces of the rectangular box. My bet was that I'd find at least a minutely positive statement—an inscription that would explicitly state the benefits of smoking cigarettes.
"Stating the benefits of a product is the hallmark of marketing, usually implored by copywriters and writers of brand descriptions to drive in sales." "Isn't it?". I soliloquized.
No one in his right mind will argue the above statement with me. But this time around, I was greeted with an anomaly.
Here are the inscriptions on the other sides of the pack:
- "TOBACCO SMOKE CONTAINS OVER 70 SUBSTANCES KNOWN TO CAUSE CANCER."
- "SMOKING KILLS, QUIT NOW"
- "SMOKING CAUSES LUNGS CANCER (It was repeated on the opposite side)"
Nothing on the pack says good things about the product. On the contrary, it's admonishing on the dangers of consuming tobacco products.
Absolutely no advantage is mentioned. The pack spoke evil of its content at every given opportunity.
Ideally, here's a product that's de-marketing itself.
One can't help but wonder: do the "de-marketing" descriptions and inscriptions on cigarette packs actually de-market cigarettes? You'll wish.
But it will interest you to know that, on one of the pack's surfaces, one of the less visible texts states that this particular brand of cigarettes has been on the market since 1858. As of today, that's a whopping 165-year difference. It has spanned close to two centuries. That's no mean feat in the business world. This tobacco company must be making huge profits to have survived different economic climates and dispensations.
It is a well established fact that a brand has to be trusted and well patronised to last this long.
But what is this particular brand trusted for?
They just told you: giving lungs cancer and sentencing people to their early graves.
165 years of causing cancer and killing. What a feat!
PS: All pictures were taken by me,using my phone.