'Smoking Is Just as Dangerous as Barack Obama', That's According to This Poster Seen in Russia

Well this poster is just all kinds of wrong isn't it?

I think it’s safe to say (or maybe not) that the mindset and understanding of the citizens in Russia can differ from our own from time-to-time – which by no means is a bad thing. Expect when it comes to this health awareness poster regarding smoking.

The poster clearly shows US President Barack Obama smoking a cigarette, nothing too controversial right? Obama has admitted to smoking in the past – inhaling both the tobacco and herbal variety (although he has claimed to be 'smoke free' since 2007), but what’s more interesting is the slogan alongside it declaring that: “Smoking kills more people than Obama, although he kills lots and lots of people”.

Okay let’s call a timeout for second shall we? Someone in a media agency, in Russia we might add, thought this was a brilliant idea to get the Russian people to stop smoking? While we won’t dispute that the Obama administration is probably creating more body bags than The Undertaker’s (now beaten) undefeated streak we can’t help but feel this is a ‘pot calling the kettle black’ situation. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin isn’t exactly known as the harbinger for peace and tolerance is he? The good intentions were clear, yet the blatant smear campaign and propaganda is unashamedly present as the poster concludes: "Don't smoke, don't be like Obama".

The inflammatory poster was posted on Facebook by Russian parliament’s only liberal MP, Dimitry Godov, who spotted it at a bus shelter in Moscow. In the post he label the poster as “disgusting and embarrassing”. This is the latest in a series of depictions of the US President as a ‘mass murderer’. Just last week there was a student video with the message "the president of the United States kills 875 people every week on Youtube which has been viewed more than 500,000 times.

[Via i100]

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