In an effort to encourage people to stop smoking, Egypt’s Health Ministry has launched a novel campaign, targeting the male population’s sexual stamina.  

One of the four advertisements issued by the ministry, shows a limp cigarette that symbolizes impotency, and is accompanied by a warning that says “smoking for a long period of time may affect marital relations.”

Other ads include a dying man in an oxygen mask, a coughing child and a fetus with a warning that smoking harms pregnancy.

 

According to the World Health Organization, nearly 50 per cent of Egyptian men aged 25 years-old and over use tobacco compared to women who constitute less than two per cent.

The advertisements began appearing on cigarette packets two weeks ago and will for a six month period, ministry officials said.
 

Ministry officials say they have received no complaints concerning the message. “Egypt is now free, we don’t have any taboos, we have the right to talk,. I know that we are a conservative community, but this is simply a health message,” a ministry official was quoted saying.

 

Details of the campaign were published in United Arab Emirates daily The National on Monday.