Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “U.S. Selects Cigarette Warning Images” (Business Day, June 22):

Rather than deter smokers from lighting up, the warning images, I suspect, will more likely cause the following events to occur: longtime, heavily addicted smokers will be driven by their heightened anxiety to light up another cigarette. New or potential smokers will dismiss the warnings in a display of reckless bravado and contempt for yet another instance of patronizing sermon-mongering.

I suggest that one or more of the following images may be more likely to elicit the desired response: the now-classic photo of the major tobacco chief executives testifying before Congress that cigarettes are not addictive; the average yearly compensation of these executives; and the single word, printed in bold letters, “Gotcha!”

THEODORE J. O’NEILL
Madison, Conn., June 23, 2011

Note from KBJ: Oh, yes, that'll stop people from smoking.