Bad news for cigarette companies. In 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was passed, making it a requirement for cigarette packages to give a big chunk of their space to warning labels. It’s only a matter of time before all the text on the box is replaced “DON”T BUY THIS!”

Now, is there anything wrong with using really, really, really disturbing images to warn people about the dangers of smoking? Not really, no. After all, if one continues to smoke too much, he or she will probably see pretty horrific images every time they look in the mirror. Some might see these images as a nightmare for the advertising guys. One big aspect of making a product desirable to your masses of consumers is to make the thing look appealing, and a bunch of “nicotined” up lungs doesn’t do the job.  Unless there is a slim chance that the consumer has some odd tastes, but they would be in the minority there.

The legions of heavy smokers who have been partaking in the habit for years will still flock to their favorite store and grab a few smokes, but newcomers may be a little wearier to give it a shot. Of course, considering the amount of anti-smoking messages in the media already, there probably isn’t anyone who starts smoking without some idea of the dangers behind it; so it’s unlikely that a few ugly pictures are going to hold much weight when one makes the decision to buy cigarettes or not.

A few who are on the fence may be swayed, but ultimately this probably won’t have too huge an effect on cigarette sales. However, a small effect is still an effect, isn’t it? And a small hole can sink a large ship right. Whether this is good or bad depends if you hold stock in a cigarette company or not.