CLEAR THE AIR SUPPORTS THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT’S INCENTIVE AS THE FIRST COUNTRY WORLDWIDE TO MANDATE GENERIC TOBACCO PACKAGING
(‘THE SILENT SALESMAN’ WILL SOON BECOME THE ’DRAB UNAPPEALING TURNOFF’)
To: Letters to the Editor, The Australian letters@theaustralian.com.au
Subject: Response to Imperial Tobacco “Nanny State” ads
Date: 16/6/11
Tobacco industry targets our children
“Nanny State”? Give us a break, tobacco industry.
You know children are your main target for “recruitment” (= addiction).
You know 140,000 Australian schoolchildren smoke at least weekly, thousands taking it up each year – and that typically they start just before turning 16.
You know the “new smokers” referred to as marketing targets in thousands of your industry’s own documents are essentially a euphemism for children. After all, when you kill over half your long-term customers, you have to find new ones.
You know the independent research evidence points strongly to plain packaging making your deadly product less appealing to teenagers – taking some of the glam out of it, drawing their attention more towards to those uncool health warnings.
You know all this. But you go on associating your product with pop music, sport and fashion – just the things you know will appeal to teens.
And you try to bully and deceive our governments out of adopting any health policy – tax rises, display bans, plain packs – that might reduce “new smoker” uptake.
Tobacco industry, we sincerely hope your expensive campaigns are a waste of your money. It will mean you have a bit less to spend on targeting our children.
Stafford Sanders
Protecting Children from Tobacco coalition (42 organisations)
June 16, 2011
tel.(02) 9334-1823; m. 0412-070-194
153 Dowling Street, Woolloomooloo 2011
email staffords@ashaust.org.au
Protecting Children from Tobacco coalition, 42 NGOs at www.ashaust.org.au/lv4/ProtectChildrenEndorsements.htm
Action on Smoking and Health Australia
Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia
Association for the Wellbeing of Children in Healthcare
Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies Australian and New Zealand Head and Neck Cancer Society Australian and New Zealand Society of Respiratory Science Australian Childhood Foundation
Australian Council of Social Service
Australian Council of State School Organisations
Australian Council on Smoking and Health
Australian Education Union
Australian Foster Care Association
Australian General Practice Network
Australian Lions Drug Awareness Foundation
Australian Lung Foundation
Australian Medical Association (NSW)
Australian National Council on Drugs
Australian Parents’ Council
Australian Youth Affairs Coalition
Baptist Union of NSW
Cancer Council Australia
Catholic Health Australia
Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Tobacco Control
Children’s Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research
Cystic Fibrosis Australia
Early Childhood Australia
Families Australia
Heart Foundation
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
National Asthma Council Australia
NSW Council of Churches
Public Affairs Commission of the Anglican Church of Australia
Public Health Association of Australia
Royal Australasian College of Physicians
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
Rural Doctors Association of Australia
Save the Children Australia
SIDS and Kids
Smarter than Smoking
Telethon Institute for Child Health Research
Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand
http://www.nonannystate.com.au/