Pubdate: Thu, May 06 1999 Source: Oregonian, The (OR) Copyright: 1999 The Oregonian Contact: 1320 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97201 Fax: 503-294-4193 Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/ Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/ Author: Pat Emmerson, Southwest Portland PRETTY PICTURES, UGLY HABIT It's fitting that the so-called anti-smoking posters will soon fill the empty spots on billboards where cigarette advertising used to be. I have thought from their debut that those anti-smoking posters would sell cigarettes as well as the others. Their images are the same, and the messages are the same, despite the words. "Bob" might say he misses his lung, but the picture shows it doesn't affect his life much. He's still riding handsomely into the sunset. The guy with emphysema still looks healthy and active, and although the little missy says her handsome date's smoke is "carcinogenic," she's still very interested in him and he's still quite fetching. A picture, truly, is worth a thousand words. It doesn't take a high-level semiotician to figure that out. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck