England captain John Terry used in Indian cigarette

Mangalore Today / Mail

London, Jan 02: Under-fire England captain John Terry is said to be furious - as his image is being used by the Indian government to warn of the dangers of smoking.

A blurry photograph of the Chelsea football star appears on Gold Flake cigarette packets across the country above a warning that Smoking Kills.

 

A packet of cigarettes, being sold in India, appears to have a photograph of John Terry above the warning Smoking Kills

The advert, created by the Indian government’s Directorate of Visual Publicity, has sparked a series of complaints from Terry’s representatives who are now preparing to sue.

Remarkable resemblance: A blurred picture of John Terry is appearing on Indian cigarette packets

Keith Cousins, of Elite Management, told India Express: ’We have reviewed this matter with our client and have today instructed solicitors to take appropriate action.’

Terry, 31, is currently facing criminal charges over allegations of racially abusing Queens Park Rangers’  Anton Ferdinand.

He has made 72 appearances for England and is also captain of Premier League side Chelsea.

KS Dhatwalia, additional secretary of the Directorate of Visual Publicity, told the Express it was ’not clear’ how the image had been used.

 

The image of John Terry on a packet of cigarettes stands with other brands on a stall in New Delhi

He said: ’We sent the creative to the health ministry and they then cleared it and circulated it. But how Terry’s picture got to be used is not clear.’

Government advertising departments have landed in trouble in the past for using ’cut-and-paste’ images taken from elsewhere.

In 2010, there was embarrassment about a newspaper advertising campaign featuring India’s athletes ahead of the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Pictures of the athletes were set against planes supposedly emitting the orange, white and green national colours in vapour plumes, but the planes were in fact Italian and the smoke Italy’s red, white and green.