L.A. suburb uses humour to discourage smoking in the great outdoors

Glendale, Calif. doesn't want you smoking in its parks and trails, and neither do its deer.

The suburb of Los Angeles has employed a new strategy to keep butts out of nature by using signs that mock smokers with a little wildlife humour.

"Our deer don't smoke in your backyard. Please don't smoke in theirs," one sign reads, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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"Smokers will be fed to the bears," says another of the signs posted by officials tired of unsightly cigarette butts that also create a risk of forest fires. Another message tells visitors the squirrels are getting cancer.

Sadly, the city dropped the idea of using "smoking provokes aggressive behaviour in mountain lions," the Los Angeles Times reported.

A Canadian ad campaign by the Ontario Health Ministry made headlines this spring when it compared social smoking to farting in public. Actors in the commercial argued soberly that just because they farted sometimes in social situations, it didn't mean they were farters. The idea being that calling yourself a 'social smoker' sounds nearly as ridiculous.

As more campaigns discourage smoking, a former German chancellor is apparently hoarding thousands of cigarettes in his house, according to the English-language German news website The Local.

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The Local reported 94-year-old Helmut Schmidt has 38,000 menthol cigarettes — 200 cartons — stored for fear the European Union will ban them. Schmidt is known for smoking everywhere, even on live television, according to the story.

He might not be welcome on California's walking trails.