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May 29th, 2012:

Cancer Research UK campaign supports removal of tobacco brands

May 29th, 2012
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http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/sectors/governmentnonprofit/article/1129269/Cancer-Research-UK-campaign-supports-removal-tobacco-brands/

Cancer Research UK has created a hard-hitting marketing campaign to highlight the impact of tobacco packaging on children, calling for all branding to be removed from packs.

The campaign, created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, shows a group of primary school children discussing what they find attractive about cigarette packets.

The children talk about the appealing quality of the images and colours and pictures, and why these elements would make them want to “play” with them.

It ends with the statement, “Unbranding cigarette packs wont stop everyone from smoking, but it will give millions of kids one less reason to start. Click to sign the petition at the answerisplain.org.”

The campaign includes a YouTube video, which then calls for members of the public to sign a petition to ban branding on tobacco packaging, supported by a series of press ads.

The film coincides with Cancer Research’s latest report that identifies young people and women as the key target groups for tobacco packaging.

It follows the announcement this month from health secretary Andrew Lansley that the Government wants tobacco companies to have “no business” in Britain.

The Government has since launched a consultation to discuss the effects of bringing in plain packaging regulations and whether it would drive down the appeal of tobacco.

Follow Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith on Twitter @LoullaMae_ES

does colorful packaging influence children’s choice ? Plain packaging of tobacco products is the only way forward.

May 29th, 2012
by Editor.
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http://www.youtube.com/user/cancerresearchuk

World No Tobacco Day 2012 Brochure

May 29th, 2012
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We are pleased to share with you the final version of the brochure for World No Tobacco Day 2012.  Please feel free to circulate within your network.  More information is also available on the WHO website:

http://www.who.int/tobacco/wntd/2012/announcement/en/index.html

The Tobacco Free Initiative in WPRO will be releasing press statements and an opinion editorial by the Regional Director. We will share these — when they are available. A letter has also been sent to Ministers of Health from the Regional Director.

With warm regards and congratulations in advance on all your efforts to raise awareness on World No Tobacco Day 2012.

Download PDF : NTD brochure final

Tobacco giants cower behind smokescreen

May 29th, 2012
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http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/tobacco-giants-cower-behind-smokescreen/story-e6frfhqf-1226368685795

Description: Cigarettes smoking

Smoking-caused illness results in 4000 Victorian deaths every year. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

THE battle between public health and corporate wealth has never been so great or so important when it comes to tobacco.

One in two long-term smokers will die of a smoking-caused illness, resulting in 4000 Victorian deaths each year.

And yet the tobacco industry is constantly attempting to thwart efforts by governments to reduce the devastating impact of smoking on the community.

The World Health Organisation has singled out tobacco industry interference as one of the greatest threats to ending the global tobacco epidemic.

So on May 31, World No Tobacco Day, Quit Victoria is calling on governments across the world to remain vigilant to protect the health of their citizens from the vested and commercial interests of the tobacco industry.

Many Australians would be surprised if they knew how tobacco companies try to weaken efforts to restrict the ways in which they peddle their deadly products, particularly to children.

Ever since the Australian Government announced its intention to pursue plain packaging, we have seen the tobacco industry exploit every possible opportunity to mislead the community and undermine this crucial public health initiative.

Sadly, this is more of the same from an industry that time and time again has put profit over the health of the Australian public.

There were the bogus claims that plain packaging would cost $460 million in lost efficiency for small business, based on a report paid for by the tobacco industry.

The report, which formed part of a $9 million campaign last year against plain packaging, was based on the guesses of just six business owners, Curtin University Associate Professor Owen Carter found.

This sort of shoddy research is often relied upon by the tobacco industry and seemingly independent front groups such as the Alliance of Australian Retailers.

These front groups act as mouthpieces for the tobacco industry, in an attempt to lend a veneer of credibility and independence to their claims but the public usually see through it.

For many, it beggars belief that a company would stoop so low to protect its profits.

The Alliance of Australian Retailers’ campaign backfired when Cancer Council Victoria research showed more than half of Victorians recognised the group was a front for the tobacco industry.

Big Tobacco’s newest tactic is intimidation by litigation and it’s displayed an appalling disregard for governments’ sovereignty to protect the health of its citizens.

In the plain packaging High Court challenge, the lengths the tobacco industry will go to protect its bottom line became clear.

We saw Japan Tobacco argue it should be compensated if plain packaging laws result in fewer Australians dying or getting sick from smoking cigarettes.

Imperial Tobacco told the court it did not agree with the Federal Government’s case that smoking causes lung cancer.

For many, it beggars belief that a company would stoop so low to protect its profits.

But tobacco companies have a long record of this sort of behaviour all over the world.

In Norway, tobacco companies are taking the Government to court over point-of-sale bans, and in Uruguay they are challenging graphic health warnings.

They are providing legal advice to the Ukraine and Honduras in their World Trade Organisation challenges to Australia’s plain packaging laws, despite the fact neither country has a significant share of the Australian tobacco market.

But now that countries such as Australia are refusing to let Big Tobacco derail their efforts to protect their citizens from the harm caused by smoking, the industry has focused on countries less able or willing to defend themselves.

Developing countries have historically had limited resources to prevent tobacco industry expansion into domestic markets and Big Tobacco from interfering in tobacco control policy.

But Big Tobacco’s opportunity is in fact the developing world’s crisis and the net economic impact of growing and consuming tobacco only serves to deepen poverty.

In 2008, across the world, tobacco killed more people than tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria combined.

Globally, we need to present a strong and united front to tobacco industry interference so we can finally end the pain, illness, suffering and costs caused by tobacco.

Fiona Sharkie is executive director of Quit