Taipei - A Taiwan anti-smoking group Friday succeeded in persuading a film company to remove a cigarette from an advertisement for the movie Coco Before Chanel. The John Tung Foundation made the request commuters complained about the ad displayed in the island's mass rapid transit system, saying it was a bad influence for children.
The ad shows Audrey Tautou, who plays Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, seated in a chair, her right hand holding a cigarette.
Vievision Pictures, the Taiwan distributor of the film, on Friday released new ads in which Tautou still holds up her right hand, but the cigarette is gone.
"We stand on the same side with the John Tung Foundation, and believe that by removing the cigarette from the ad, we can create a better atmosphere for the anti-smoking campaign," the company said.
Under Taiwan's anti-smoking legislation, advertisements cannot promote cigarettes or smoking, and smoking is banned in all public and work places.
Coco Before Chanel recounts Coco Chanel's rise from obscure beginnings to becoming a world fashion icon. The movie opens in Taiwan on August 21.
In Hong Kong a similar poster was withdrawn from newspapers in mid-June. The film, directed by Anne Fontaine, also irked anti-smoking groups in France and Britain.
"In France, the distributor has to use another ad which shows no cigarette. In Britain, they replaced the cigarette in Tautou's hand with a a pen. In Hong Kong, they blacked out the cigarette," Lin Ching-lin, of the John Tung Foundation said.
