Is it really that bombastic? Lot of people are smoking and will readily justify it with anecdotal evidance proving that smoking isn't really that bad at all - "you know there was this 105 year old Japanese guy and they asked him how he got that old and he said he stopped smoking at the age of 99 ..."
Furthermore - people need those "comparisons" - only few will change their behavior based on purely statistical reasoning.
The WHO report tells us that the quality of the evidence is very good, which is why red meat and processed red meat have this new classification.
It doesn't talk about how strong the cancer-causing effects of red meat and processed meat are. They are nothing like as risky as cigarettes. We know that cigarettes are very harmful.
Furthermore - people need those "comparisons" - only few will change their behavior based on purely statistical reasoning.