An image of President Obama enjoying a last long drag on a cigarette is being used in a new campaign in Moscow to encourage Russians to give up smoking. The message: Both tobacco and the American president can kill you.
Although Mr. Obama has famously struggled to kick the nicotine habit, the image is actually Photoshopped, showing a wisp of smoke curling up from the cigarette as the president stares off into the middle distance. And the message of the public-service ads is considerably darker than just that smoking is bad for you, according to a report in the English-language Moscow Times.
“Smoking kills more people than Obama, although Obama kills a lot of people,” the poster’s ad copy reads. “Don’t smoke. Don’t be like Obama.”
The Moscow Times report notes that, in a time of rising U.S.-Russian tensions, Mr. Obama has been the target of other unflattering ad campaigns. A large Russian supermarket chain was forced to issue a public apology after it marketed a new chopping board depicting the president as a chimpanzee.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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