Okay, Stop Keesing Me

Wow, it's been almost two weeks since I last wrote! Haha, whoops! Probably you checked for updates every day and then cried a single tear with some blood in it when you saw that there were none. Well, blood-cry no more, for I am about to enlighten you on another surprising aspect of Latin American culture.

I have things I SHOULD be writing about-- for example, our recent adventure to Tierra Santa, a theme park based on-- what else?? -- the life of Jesus:

"Visit Jerusalem in Buenos Aires all year long!"

Golgotha: Been there, done that, got the t-shirt

 

 

Ohohoho TRUST me, there will be a separate post for this strange, strange day.

BUT I enjoy writing culture posts like ONE THOUSAND MILLION TIMES MORE than writing about actual things we did, so I'm going to subject you to some interesting facts you didn't necessarily want to know on the topic of:

 

SMOKING

(For "How to be smokin hott," talk to me in person.)

(For "HELP HELP I AM ACTUALLY SMOKING BECAUSE MY BODY IS ON FIRE," then stop drop and roll, you dunce.)

 

This may be an interesting lesson for both my U.S. readers and my Latin American readers, because it's a very subtle difference between our cultures. You might never notice it, but when you do it says a lot about who we are. 

 

Background information: Cigarette smoking is VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY common in Argentina. Smoking was common in the U.S. about 30 years ago but is now generally seen as "uncool."  I don't know a lot of people who smoke, even in college, and it's actually kinda looked down on now.

 

Here comes the part that is going to be surprising to my U.S. friends: Cigarette packs in Argentina are REQUIRED BY LAW to carry a prominent anti-smoking photo and message. No matter what brand you buy, it's gonna look something like this:

 

"SMOKING CAUSES HEART AND RESPIRATORY DISEASES"

 

One side has this stark warning, while the other displays a delightful supporting photo:

 

"THE CONSUMPTION OF TOBACCO CAUSES HEART ATTACKS"

"Comfortable there in your hospital bed? That's good, because we're going to take your picture now."

 

I had never seen something like this before, so I began collecting empty cigarette boxes and photographing them for posterity:

 

"Healthy lung/ Smoker's lung"

"SMOKING CAUSES DEATH BY ASPHYXIATION"

"TOBACCO SMOKE IS A CAUSE OF SICKNESS AND DEATH"

"EACH CIGARETTE INTOXICATES"

(I'm not sure what this is supposed to be a picture of, but there's a bright red arrow. Bright red arrow= BAD.)

"SMOKING CAUSES CANCER"

"SMOKING TAKES YEARS OFF YOUR LIFE"

"HALF OF SMOKERS DIE FROM TOBACCO"

(Please note the freaking BODY TAG)

"CIGARETTES DAMAGE YOUR SEX LIFE"

Ahahaha, I like this one

 

"SMOKING CAN CAUSE AMPUTATION OF LEGS"

 

 

And my personal favorite:

"SMOKING IN THE HOME HURTS CHILDREN"

This is what we Communications Majors call "a pathos appeal."

 

 

Now the part that may be surprising to my Latin American friends: Cigarette companies in the United States don't reeeeeally have to put these graphic warnings on their products. They do have to say it causes cancer, but they just put one sentence in a little box on the side of the package. It's barely noticeable. For that reason, these pictures of lungs and sad children were kinda surprising to me when I got here.

 

 

The strange part is that the United States seems to have a much lower number of smokers right now than Argentina, and we don't have the scary pictures. Why is that? What's the difference? My curiosity has been aroused. Aaaaaaaaand that is the last time I will ever use the word aroused in a blog post.

 

Anyway, just something weird that I noticed. Hope you enjoyed some pictures of skanky lungs.