US

Despite an accumulating body of evidence that casts doubt on the effectiveness of including highly graphic images on cigarette pack, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it has selected nine graphic warning labels that tobacco companies will be required to use.
In the first major change to warning labels in over 25 years, the newly chosen graphic images will have to cover the top half – front and back – of cigarette packs and will depict disturbing images of damaged human lungs and a man exhaling smoke through a tracheotomy hole in his neck, among others.

The FDA further announced that 20% of tobacco ad space will also have to be devoted to the anti-smoking images to be placed with larger text warnings.
The new legislation set to go into effect in September 2012, had met with intense opposition and prompt legal action from tobacco companies, since the images would hurt their rights to free speech, obscure their brand names, stigmatize the smokers and demonize the companies that sell a perfectly legal product.”