Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
See the Gross/Cartoonish New Cigarette Warning Labels
By
John Del Signore
Published Nov 10, 2010
Modified Nov 10, 2010
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
View all 10
By
John Del Signore
Published Nov 10, 2010
Modified Nov 10, 2010
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
For those sad, outcast New Yorkers still determined to puff away inside their Government-designated smoking ghettos, there's more bad news. Smoking is deadly, and Obama doesn't want you to forget it. In the first major change to cigarette packaging since the Reagan-era, the FDA is requiring graphic warning labels that will cover half a package's front and back, and the top 20% of all cigarette ads. The administration is currently mulling over 36 different potential labels, which range from the cartoonish to the revolting. Here's a sample.
In June, the FDA will narrow down these options [pdf] to nine, and in September cigarette manufacturers must begin putting them on packages and advertising. Smoking rates nationwide have declined from about 42% in 1965 to just under 21% in 2004, but health officials are worried the rates have remained flat since then. "That's bad news," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters. "Every day, 4,000 young people try cigarettes for the first time and 1,000 continue to smoke."
A local proposal to require cigarette retailers to post graphic warning signs at the cash register died on the vine. But the Bloomberg administration is still moving forward with a smoking ban in city parks, beaches, boardwalks, and pedestrian plazas. Correlation does not imply causation, but last year NYC reached its lowest rate of smoking on record (15.8%), with less than 1 million adult smokers in the city—350,000 fewer than in 2002.
And if you think these ads are gross, just be glad you don't smoke in Egypt, or Thailand, or New Zealand or Brazil! (You should also be glad you're not the intern we tasked with finding all those links during lunch hour.)
Tagged
cigarettes
fda
smoking
warning labels
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .