French anti-smoking poster links habit to performing oral sex

Controversy is raging in France after an anti-smoking group launched a poster campaign which links the use of tobacco by teenagers, both male and female, to the performing of oral sex on an older man.

According to Newser/Associated Press France's Family Minister Nadine Morano indicated when speaking on the radio on Wednesday that she is considering action to have the posters, two of which may be viewed at either the Telegraph website or at Paris Match, banned on the grounds that they may be "an affront on public decency". Produced by a French ad agency at no charge, on behalf of the campaign group Les Droits des Non-fumeurs (The Rights of Non-smokers), the images of teenagers with cigarettes in their mouths, sitting with their faces in close proximity to the crotch of an older man, are accompanied by the words "Fumer, C'est Etre L'Esclave Du Tabac" - translated as "Smoking is to be the slave of tobacco". The man, whose face you cannot see, has his hand on the heads of the teenagers, apparently forcing them to perform oral sex. Defending the poster, which will be displayed in bars and appear as an advertisement in newspapers, the campaign group's President, Gerard Audureau, is quoted by the Independent as saying:

Young people think that they are invincible, immortal. Fear of sexual exploitation worries them more than illness

Furthermore, the group's Director, Remi Parola - his group is also referred to as the Association for Nonsmokers' Rights (DNF) - conceding that the ads have a "sexual connotation", insisted that they were not, in the words of the Associated Press, "really about sex at all". He explained:

Traditional advertisements targeting teens don't affect them. Talking about issues of health, illness or even death, they don't get it. However, when we talk about submission and dependence, they listen

Meanwhile the Telegraph notes that one comment left on the DNF website reads "The campaign trivialises sexual abuse - worse, it implies guilt on the part of the abused". And both feminist groups and at least one conservative pro-family group have made their opposition to the poster known. On behalf of the former groups Florence Montreynaud from Chiennes de Garde (Guard Bitches) called the use of images hinting at underage sex "inadmissible" and Antoinette Fouquet, co-founder of the Movement for the Liberation of Women/Movement for Women's Liberation observed, ironically says Paris Match:

To my knowledge, practicing oral sex does not cause cancer

For Familles de France/Families of France Christiane Therry argued:

It makes no sense. An advertisement, even a provocative one must be decipherable and understandable, it should create a message, transmit a message. This campaign gives the impression of being more about sexuality than about anti-smoking. This is what bothers us

Regardless of the propriety of the DNF poster France, where smoking was banned in bars, restaurants and similar public places in 2008, still appears to have a considerable problem with its young people using tobacco. At the same time, taking the French population as a whole, smoking has become less popular. Tobacco is reportedly the main cause of cancer and "avoidable deaths" in France and surveys are said to show that: - More than 50 percent of young people in France over 14 years old have smoked a cigarette at least once - Approaching 20 percent of 16 to 20-year-olds now smoke, up from 10 percent 10 years ago - Among 13 to 15-year-olds 2004 through 2008 saw an increase of 66 percent in the numbers who were smoking President of the National Committee against Tobacco, Professor Yves Martinet, apparently supports the use of the poster, being of the opinion too that "a significant increase in the price of a pack of cigarettes" would significantly reduce the problem.