The federal government is becoming increasingly inept at advertising campaigns.
Traditional advertising promotes use of a product.
In a break from tradition, government - specifically the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - in the mid-1980s began a promotional campaign to discourage use of a product, cigarettes.
After approximately 25 years of mandating warning labels on cigarette packs, the FDA soon will require those packs to contain graphic images of the health consequences of smoking.
The images include rotting teeth, mouth lesions, a tracheotomy and a sewn-up corpse.
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg hopes the graphic images will send a message, particularly to young people, that cigarette smoking is "gross."
We believe that message already is commonly understood.
Cigarettes once were associated with curbing appetite, keeping thin and calming anxiety.
The link between smoking, addiction and health hazards prompted warning labels that raised awareness and precipitated a decline in smoking. In 1965, the rate of Americans 18 and older who smoked was 42.4 percent. The rate dropped to 28.8 percent in 1987, but has hit a plateau in recent years, hovering in the range of 20 percent. The FDA now links tobacco used to 443,000 deaths annually in the U.S.
That's a lot of pain, suffering and premature death.
Our conversations with smokers - admittedly anecdotal, not scientific - indicate they are aware of the health hazards and will not be discouraged by graphic images on the cigarette packs they purchase.
The mandatory images mark an added step to discourage - a step that stops short of prohibition. Government has learned from history that prohibition creates a criminal black market with dual downsides: government incurs costs to fight continued production and consumption of the banned substance while failing to derive tax revenues.
We hope the graphic images are effective. We hope they help reduce the 20 percent of adult smokers and prevent kids from adopting the habit.
Although we may hope, we are not convinced.