Last night, a French magazine told the story of Harald Molter, a man who spotted his deceased father's face on a pack of cigarettes. According to Molter, this shot of him in his hospital bed was used without permission...
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An appalling discovery
After his mother told him about it, Harald went to the tobacconist's office and was horrified to see a picture of his father, on his hospital bed shortly before his death, on the back of a pack of cigarettes.
On June 29, Molter received a call from his mother, who explained the situation to him: "Listen, Harald, I saw your father's picture on a pack of cigarettes," she told him. Harald, who didn't believe it, replied: "Look, you're probably mistaken, it's someone who looks like him." The conversation ended there but Harald couldn't help but wonder.
To get to the bottom of this, he decided to go to a tobacconist to see what his mother was talking about. There, he was shocked to see a picture of his father, Joseph, who died a few years ago from a stroke.
The picture was taken was during his stay in the hospital. In this picture, Harald Molter's father is lying in his hospital bed, intubated.
Unauthorized photograph
Cigarette manufacturers chose this disheartening photo to scare compulsive smokers. The problem is that neither Molter nor his family authorized a cigarette brand to use this image on their packs of cigarettes.
"I didn't want my son to see his grandfather like that. This picture shows him at his worst," Harald Molter told the magazine. "We didn't expect this, we weren't even warned, it's quite absurd. This picture was taken after he had a stroke, 10 years ago. He was intubated and put in a coma for several weeks, so I don't see how he could have agreed to have his picture taken..."
"Everyone in our family agrees on one thing: no one took a picture of dad at that time. And no one asked us for our permission either. This is despicable and disgusting, I still can't believe it... Our whole family is shocked and angry about what is happening to us..." he added.
