‘Bolo Zubaan Cancery’ talk of town

To trigger discussion and spread awareness on the harmful impact of tobacco chewing, a few anti-tobacco voluntary organisations have come up with a unique graphical representation titled 'Bolo Zubaan Cancery

Hyderabad: What if graphical health warnings showcasing the ill effects of tobacco consumption feature top actors from Bollywood who regularly appear in gutkha commercials? Should anti-tobacco voluntary groups be allowed to showcase the consequences of tobacco addiction by visualising the disfigured faces of Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn and other popular actors, who endorse chewing products that are laced with tobacco?

To trigger discussion and spread awareness on the harmful impact of tobacco chewing, a few anti-tobacco voluntary organisations have come up with a unique graphical representation titled ‘Bolo Zubaan Cancery’, punning on a popular tobacco chewing advertisement showcasing facial disfigurement of top actors due to cancer.

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Developed by Indiainpixels on social media platform ‘X’, the graphic picture quickly became meme material, as anti-tobacco activists, dental surgeons and senior physicians across the country on various social media outlets started sharing and appreciating the hard-hitting graphic warning. The visual graphic displays actors with darkened lips, permanent teeth stains, mouth ulcers, gum decay, facial disfigurement, bad breath, loss of teeth and permanent ageing etc, which are the typical symptoms associated with addiction to tobacco chewing.

Many acknowledged that the graphic, through actors, depicts what chewing smokeless tobacco i.e., gutkha can do to individuals. Several anti-tobacco voluntary institutions said the pictorial warning should be used by all public health advocacy groups and even policymakers who are involved in the control of tobacco consumption in India.