No Smoking Signs

The San Francisco-area transit agency couldn’t stomach a public service message about what smoking does to your lungs. A nonprofit organization wanted to put billboards in train stations that read: “You smoke, you croak. (no joke.)” The sign shows a huge cigarette shoved into an X-ray image of a person’s lungs. “We really found the ad distasteful,” said Dennis Mochon, director of marketing for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District. For commuters, “it wouldn’t light up their day, so to speak.”