Hong Kong's anti-smoking lobby has refused to endorse an 'inappropriate' anti-tobacco poster which likens the World Trade Centre disaster to the danger of cigarettes.
The poster says 'No More Killing' and depicts two upright cigarettes billowing smoke superimposed from photographs of the burning World Trade Centre.
Local graphic artist and former advertising executive Michael Miller Yu and designer Eric Chan designed the poster and plan to enter it in international design competitions. They had hoped the local anti-smoking lobby would use it in its campaign.
'Six thousand people died in the September 11 tragedy but four million people die [each year] from smoking,' Mr Yu said.
He defended his concept and said the image was not in poor taste as it had been conceived to generate awareness. Had it been used commercially it would have been in poor taste, he said. 'The visual is fresh in people's minds so it has an impact,' he said.
Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health chairman Professor Anthony Hedley said the poster would not be used in its campaigns. He said it would be useless to imply that one person's life was more important than another person's.