PRETTY PICTURES, UGLY HABIT

It's fitting that the so-called anti-smoking posters will soon fill the
empty spots on billboards where cigarette advertising used to be.

I have thought from their debut that those anti-smoking posters would sell
cigarettes as well as the others. Their images are the same, and the
messages are the same, despite the words.

"Bob" might say he misses his lung, but the picture shows it doesn't affect
his life much. He's still riding handsomely into the sunset.

The guy with emphysema still looks healthy and active, and although the
little missy says her handsome date's smoke is "carcinogenic," she's still
very interested in him and he's still quite fetching.

A picture, truly, is worth a thousand words. It doesn't take a high-level
semiotician to figure that out.