‘The true cost of smoking’: Grandmother’s comparison of food shop to cost of cigarettes goes viral

‘They should make this into an anti-smoking advertisement,’ comments Facebook user

(Getty Images/Facebook)

A grandmother’s Facebook post highlighting the cost of cigarettes compared to a food shop has gone viral.

On Saturday, Judy Lawson shared a photograph of a packet of cigarettes alongside a full food shop comprising meat, fruit, vegetables and cereal among other staples.

At $56.85 AUD (£29.48), the food shop costs almost exactly the same as a packet of 40 cigarettes, which costs $56.95 AUD (£29.53).

Lawson captioned the post: “Cigarettes v Food... grandchild commented on how much cigarettes are after watching someone purchase them, so we made a challenge.

“Grandkids and I tried to purchase the most value for money ‘basic’ food items and the most popular cigarette brand,” she explained, noting that the children were “surprised” at the amount of food they could buy for the same monetary value.

Lawson’s post has since been shared 17,000 times and garnered more than 9,000 comments from people who were just as surprised as the children by the comparison.

“I hope this message gets through to smokers and encourages some to stop,” commented one person.

“That is awesome,” another added. “What a great example!! Both for young people and adults alike.

“Now they should make this into an anti-smoking advertisement.”

The NHS website states that around 78,000 people in the UK die from smoking each year.

Smoking is also responsible for seven out of every 10 cases of lung cancer, it adds.