A striking resemblance to a warning photo on a pack of cigarettes has a woman furious.

Jodi Charles was horrified when she saw the image on a friend's package of cigarettes, saying it was a photo of her father who passed away in 2015. She said that her dad did not give his consent to use the photo for the advertisement.

"I am 110 per cent sure it is him and that there is no way he gave permission for such a terrible picture to be used. It's terribly upsetting," she said.

Although he was a smoker, the former ambulance driver passed away from bone marrow problems, septicemia and lymphoma, all which were unrelated to his tobacco use.

It was Jodi's 14-year-old daughter that noticed the picture on the packaging.

"My friend who smokes tobacco came round on Tuesday and my 14-year-old daughter picked up the wrapper," said the mother-of-two. "She ran into the room and said, 'Look, it's granddad!"

"When I saw that photo, I just said, 'Oh my God.' I just knew without any doubt that it was dad. I was horrified."

Jodi showed the package to her mother Marina Morton, who is also convinced that is a photo of her late-husband.

Hospitalized for 10 months at Basildon University Hospital in Essex, he was on life support in the intensive care unit on 3 occasions.

That is when Jodi suspects the photo must have been taken, which shows a man lying unconscious in a hospital bed with a breathing tube in his mouth.

"The whole picture looks exactly like him. His eyes were puffed up when he was in intensive care and they are in the photo too," Jodi says.

The hospital denies this claim and the European Commission says the image is of someone else entirely.

The EU said it "cannot give out further information on their identity in order to protect the rights of the individuals depicted."

"We are very sorry for the distress caused to this young lady who believes that her father is depicted in this health warning. However, having checked the details of her father against the identity of the person depicted, we can categorically state that the person in this picture is not David Ross," a European Commission spokesman said. "Any similarity with other individuals is purely coincidental."

Jodi and her family are not convinced and wants the brand to stop using the photo.

"It is morally wrong and extremely distressing for the whole family."

What do you think? Should the cigarette company pull the advertisement?