Lawyers for England captain John Terry could take legal action after an apparent image of the footballer was used in a tobacco warning on cigarette packets in India, his spokesman said Tuesday. The blurry photograph featuring the head and shoulders of a man resembling Terry appears on packets of Gold Flake cigarettes and other brands with a superimposed set of blackened lungs and the warning that “Smoking Kills”. “It would seem that the picture is of him and he has not posed for anything like this,” Keith Cousins, of the British-based Elite Management agency, which represents Terry, told AFP by telephone.
“We don’t know where the image is taken from, but he has not given his consent for this,” he said. “We have consulted solicitors in London and India to investigate the matter and take appropriate action.” Cousins added that Terry, who has hit the headlines in the past over drinking binges, was a non-smoker. The Indian Express newspaper reported that the government’s Directorate of Visual Publicity had created the health warning, which appears on packets of 20 cigarettes which cost as little as 96 rupees ($1.80).
