IT IS difficult to pinpoint which is most confronting - the image of Bryan Curtis' corpse-like body, so emaciated it is hard to tell if he is dead or alive, or the photo taken just 10 weeks earlier of the then 33-year-old - seemingly fit, with a wide moustache and shining, blue eyes, unrecognisable as the man about to die.

Whichever it is, the pictures that stare out from a murky green cigarette pack are haunting. So much so, that of all the graphic images currently being splashed across the plain packs - there are seven in circulation and seven more to be introduced next year - this is the one smokers do not want to have to look at.

A graphic warning features photos of smoker Bryan Curtis on a packet of cigarettes. Credit:Joe Armao

''We are hearing about people who are being given that pack and they're saying, 'Look, I don't want that one, give me another one','' Quit Victoria executive director Fiona Sharkie says.

''It's a very human connection, rather than just a body part, and it's having a really shocking impact on people.''