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Creating the "Tobacco Industry's Poster Child"
The British Columbia Ministry of Health, working with NOW Communications of Vancouver, set out to create an image that conveyed the damage that could actually happen to a young, supposedly invulnerable smoker. It was decided to portray a young girl, about 14, because smoking among girls is increasing more rapidly in BC than among boys. She was to be recognisably pretty, except for the damaging effects of tobacco.
The goal was to have a pre-teenager look at the poster and think "This could happen to me". There was an additional objective-to link the damage to the tobacco industry itself. The poster's original headline "Smoke Damage", didn't accomplish that goal, so the agency developed a headline-"Tobacco Industry's Poster Child"-that mocked the poster child imagery of good causes.
The poster child picture was inspired by issue 21 ofColors magazine, published by the Benetton company in the summer of 1997 (< http://www.ashaust.org.au/wsd.html >). Each edition of the magazine deals with a particular social issue, and issue 21 focused on smoking. It included a collage of a human body made up of photographs of damage caused by tobacco: hair loss, cataracts, tooth decay, tumours, and diseased lungs. The effect was shocking, revolting, and riveting. The challenge was to capture all of that in a single image to convince kids that damage from smoking doesn't just happen after 30 or 40 years.
The poster child picture illustrates several of the principles that are key to BC's tobacco strategy: taking on the industry itself; presenting carefully tested information to young people in a straightforward, direct yet dramatic manner; and putting the work and experience of others to good use, adapting as necessary for British Columbia.
The same week, a new animated billboard of the poster child was mounted throughout Vancouver. It began with an image of a lovely young girl holding a flower. The image then metamorphosed into the now familiar "Tobacco Industry's Poster Child" with the diseased lung, cancerous gums, stained teeth, yellowed fingers, and wrinkled skin (figure 1 ).
The WHO meeting, which took place on 2-4 December 1998, and the billboard, were part of a series of British Columbia's Tobacco Strategy activities over the past year. These activities included a number...