In the wake of the smoking ban in Ireland, many pubs in Dublin now feature outdoor ashtrays, shaped like boxes and clamped to a wall. Advertisers, aware of the eyes of a captive market, have started putting small posters on the front of these ashtrays. (This painful exposition is for readers outside Ireland–that vast horde). All this brings me to such an ad for Today FM. Along with a logo for the radio station, there’s some text, which uses a sombre font similar to that used for cigarette health warnings. From memory, I think the sentence reads “Smokers die younger but then again so do rock stars.” My sister and some friends think I’m being po-faced in finding this offensively dumb–to me it’s like something a sulky 14-year-old would come up with. But apart from that, it appears to flagrantly contravene regulations that prohibit cigarette advertising. Today FM might claim the whole thing is lighthearted (dying from lung cancer being such a hoot), but I wouldn’t be surprised if, after a few words from the standards authority, this gag disappears pretty sharpish.