New Delhi. Government has come up with a new notification about pictorial warnings on cigarette packs. Now the packs will have to carry the picture of Maggie logo with a warning message “consuming tobacco is equally dangerous like consuming Maggie”. Even the loose cigarettes will have these warnings on top of them.
Faking News reporter met senior health ministry officials to know more about this announcement. “Government always looks for effective & innovative ways to pass the correct message to smokers as well as non-smokers who might turn smokers unless warned regularly,” said official Gupta.
“Earlier the debate was to have pictorial warnings which cover 60% or 80% of the cigarette pack size. We talked to many experts, they felt now a day’s 60% or 80% does not look like high number as everyone on the street talks about their kids scoring 95% or more. We cannot cover the full pack with pictorial warnings, then where will the brand name come? We have to think about creative brand managers who work day and night to make a brand popular or unpopular,” he added.
Now on Cigarette packs.
About innovative ways, Faking News suggested the ministry could have used bigger picture of Mr. Mukesh instead of Maggie logo. Mr. Gupta said, “Mr. Mukesh is known by multiplex cinema going public, we chose a brand name like Maggie which is known to aam people of India. You would be surprised to know some years back we did a survey among students staying in hostels. About 90% of them told us maggie tastes better than their hostel food and rest of the crowd said they do not have much choice as they have to eat whatever their boyfriend or girlfriend orders for them.”
Mr. Gupta added, “Till now no one was able to establish any conclusive evidence to prove that cigarette smoking cause cancer, but here we have findings by UP FDA which shows Maggie contains high levels of lead which will definitely lead to cancer. We are sure with these new warnings supplemented by proven evidence, many will quit smoking.”
When we asked Mr. Gupta what about film personalities who endorse Maggie and some of them do not hesitate to eat it happily on screen. Mr. Gupta added, “Yes, we have sent a notice to them to stop endorsing the brand and the film industry needs to put the warning message wherever in old as well as new movies any character is found eating Maggie”.
What about hostel students especially in first year of Engineering who have a long bridge to cross, what they will eat, they deserve something better than ragging only. Mr. Gupta claimed that HRD ministry is coming with a new training program to upgrade the skills of the cooks engaged in hostel canteen.
“I am sure after the training they will be able to bring something back to hostel food which is missing for ever know as “taste”. Nitin Gadkariji who has good experience on taste of food, will guide the HRD ministry,” he said.
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