Lies against lies

 
Published: Tuesday 31 August 2004

Posters by a Non Smoking Generation Sweden

Smoking stunts penis growth, cigarette filters contain mouse excrement and girls start smoking because they're stupid. Residents of Stockholm, Sweden, found their city plastered with posters making these claims on July 19. The posters are of course utter lies, but the Swedish organisation which pasted them isn't feeling guilty or ashamed.

"We wanted to raise awareness about how the tobacco industry always promotes its products -- through lies," says Anne-Therese Enarsson, head of A Non Smoking Generation, an anti-tobacco group. "Our lies are so exaggerated that we hope they will make people stop and think, and then come to our website to find the truth," she says.

Other lies plastered across the Swedish capital included posters claiming that second-hand smoke is killing birds. "This is an important campaign because it is summer vacation now and most kids start smoking in the summer. There are 70 kids who start smoking every day in Sweden. We hope this will make them think twice," says Enarsson, adding that the posters would stay up for the next two weeks.

A Non Smoking Generation was not worried that tobacco companies would sue over the lies, she says.

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