Sexually Suggestive French Antismoking Ads Protested

A French youth antismoking campaign that equates smoking to submissively giving oral sex is being criticized for its explicit theme and questionable effectiveness.

ABC News reported Feb. 24 that the two ads depict a young man and a young woman kneeling at belt height in front of a well-dressed man; in each ad, the youths have a cigarette in their mouths and are looking up at the unseen face of the man.

“Smoking means being a slave to tobacco,” the ads read.

“We noticed that the traditional anti-smoking campaigns no longer got across amongst the youth,” said Remi Parola of the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association. “We thus had to use another way in order to raise awareness.”

French government officials termed the ads “mediocre,” “inappropriate,” and “counterproductive.” Yves Trevilly, a spokesperson for British American Tobacco’s French operations, said, “To be compared to a pedophile because I work for a tobacco manufacturer is extremely shocking.”

Child-welfare groups also criticized the ads.