“One Smoker, Many Victims”
Serbia must be taking plays straight from the US War on Drugs playbook. In a campaign to persuade smokers to quit, a Serbian media blitz equates smoking to suicide bombing.
Huge billboard pictures show a man strapped with a vest of oversized cigarettes that look like sticks of dynamite, under the slogan “One Smoker, Many Victims”.
I don’t think they are going to have much success. More than 50% of Serbians smoke and see it as an enjoyable habit.
Laws exist banning smoking in public places such as hospitals and government buildings, but are routinely ignored by a people long used to the pungent haze of tobacco smoke in every cafe, bar, bus and office.
There is no social stigma attached to smoking, and little financial incentive to quit: a pack costs as little as 50 dinars (39 pence) for domestic brands, making it affordable even on the average salary of 300 euros a month.
Hmmm, now that France is to ban smoking in public, perhaps I will need to look into Serbia as a vacay spot.
****Photo:REUTERS/Marko Djurica
February 1, 2007 at 7:05 pm
If you learn Serbian, you’ll find out they’re the most foul-mouthed wankers on this planet. Their phrase for hello literally translates as “Motherfucker, where’ve you been?”
My kind of people, aside from the whole genocide thing. :p
February 2, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Having any Balkan ancestry at all is kind of disturbing, because you know some of your relatives have done some bad stuff. Luckily my Croatian ancestors were digging coal out of Pennsylvania when the whole Ustase thing came about and were full-fledged middle class Americans when the more recent crap happened.
February 2, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Well, I’m Scottish-American… the worst thing we’ve done is basically be England’s footsoldiers when they were sticking it to India and Iraq. I blame it on being fucking poor though.