Slide show: Proposed FDA cigarette warnings

This one is relatively benign. It also shows how smoking women, bad mothers all, let their children make terrible messes.

The "puppet on a string" motif has been a long-running theme in anti-drug ads. But unlike some of the other graphic images, this one is likley too abstract to have much of an impact.

At last, a hopeful message. Would this work as well as a scare tactic?

This could be an ad for proper disposal of fireplace ashes.

This happens to be my favorite, because its comic-book noir quality.

Guys, would you date this girl?

Girls, would you date this guy?

Does second-hand smoke cause this many deaths? According to the CDC, these and many more. It says second-hand smoke leads to 46,000 heart-disease deaths annually among adult non-smokers.

This photo could be from any heartbreaking situation, like a home foreclosure.

This illustration is almost childlike in its simplicity. Of course, it's wrong: Smoking doesn't always lead to death with the speed of a pointy black arrow. Most of the time some other disease gets you first. Now that would have made a good slogan.

This one reminds me of those life-insurance ads you see online all the time: What would your family do if you suddenly weren't there for them?

This may be the weakest one. As Denis Leary, the comedian, said, you could put a skull and crossbones on a pack of smokes and call them Tumors and people would still smoke them. This warning would scare no one.

I was wondering whether this guy died from smoking or something else that required him to be cut open for an autopsy. It's a pretty good job of acting on his part, though.

The FDA is changing the warning labels on cigarettes for the first time since they came into existence in 1965. There are several choices, and citizens can inform the FDA of their favorites. There are also nine samples of warning-label text.

This may be the most hard-hitting one, depicting a wailing infant in a hospital incubator, ravaged by prenatal smoking.

The FDA must have done research showing ads that feature children as victims of smoking are very effective.

"I'm not a heart-attack victim, although I play one on cigarette packaging."

Cigarette packaging has come a long way, baby.

Along with new illustrations, the FDA has come up with nine warning label texts.

This is the first of many photos that rely on the frightening prospect of losing the ability to breathe.

What do you think of the FDA's proposed new warnings? You can go to www.fda.gov and register your feedback.

These are your teeth on smoking.

The emboldened FDA is taking a tough stand on warning labels for cigarettes.

Is the FDA going too far by showing people purported to be victims of lung cancer?

... while others are rather mild.