Smoking warning labels: More effective graphically?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/health/policy/11tobacco.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB

An interesting article I found this morning that relates back to our discussion of imagery vs. text.

“'The use of graphic warnings makes no contribution to the awareness of these risks and serves only to stigmatize smokers and denormalize smoking,” said Anthony Hemsley, a vice president at Commonwealth Brands, the maker of USA Gold cigarettes.

Among the most arresting of the proposed labels is one in which a man exhales smoke through a hole in his neck. Some smokers who suffer cancer of the larynx must breathe through a tracheotomy instead of their nose or mouth. But the proposed labels are not as gruesome as some mandated in Europe, in which ghastly photos of blackened teeth and decaying mouths give a Halloween aspect to cigarette packs.'"