[Intl-tobacco] UK: Tobacco Ad Ban Goes Into Effect - Clip Compilation

[Robert Weissman]

Campaigners Hail Tobacco Ad Ban
Tania Branigan
Friday February 14, 2003
The Guardian

The fat lady sang, and it was over. As the ban on tobacco adverts came
into force at midnight
last night, a voluptuous soprano voiced their swansong.

Sarah Jane Dale - draped in torn purple satin by the manufacturers of
Silk Cut - offered
passersby in central London bursts from Carmen: chosen, no doubt,
because its heroine
works in a cigarette factory.

But the chorus of approval from health and anti-smoking campaigners, who
called the ban a
victory for public health, drowned out her lone voice yesterday.

The health secretary, Alan Milburn, had already made his own views clear
by ripping down a
48-sheet billboard advert in south London to reveal the message:
"Tobacco advertising - we
can live without it. Don't give up giving up."

Mr Milburn said he hoped that outlawing adverts in the press and at
poster sites would save
up to 3,000 lives a year.

"Advertising works, smoking kills. Today we are breaking the link
between the two," he
said. "Tobacco advertising and sponsorship have acted as a recruiting
sergeant for children and
young teenagers to start the habit.

"Adverts have sought to get more people to smoke by conveying the idea
smoking is
glamorous when in fact it is dangerous. They have tried to get more
people to smoke by
pretending it enhances quality of life when in fact it serves to shorten
people's lives."

The ban marks the first stage of legislation passed in November last
year. In-pack promotion
schemes and direct marketing will become illegal in May, while internet
advertising and
sponsorship of events will be restricted.

"Our research has shown that tobacco advertising discourages existing
smokers from trying
to quit and encourages new smokers to take up the habit," said Sir Paul
Nurse, chief
executive of Cancer Research UK.

"At present, 450 British children start smoking every day. We expect to
see this figure drop
as a result of this lifesaving legislation and congratulate the
government on a victory for
public health."

Clive Bates, director of Ash (Action on Smoking and Health), said: "It
will save tens of
thousands of lives as the attractiveness of cigarettes begins to decline
and the tobacco
industry struggles to recruit new smokers to replace the customers that
are dying off."

The British Medical Association, which said doctors had been calling for
the legislation for
40 years, urged the government to go further and ban smoking in public
places.

But Simon Clark, director of the smokers' pressure group Forest, said
the ban was a
pointless political gesture and would deny consumers information
enabling them to choose
between brands: "The idea that people start smoking because of
advertising, or are unaware of
the health risks, is nonsense."

"What motivates young people to start smoking is peer pressure. Common
sense suggests
that the more smoking is attacked by politicians, the more attractive it
becomes."

Despite campaigning against the ban, tobacco companies have insisted
that it will not kill
the industry. They have sought other ways of marketing their products,
such as branded
clothing.



Times of London

British News



February 14, 2003

Adverts for cigarettes wheeze
to a last gasp
By Oliver Wright, Health Correspondent


FOR the tobacco industry, it was the day on which
even a Hamlet could not bring happiness. Yesterday
was the last day of cigarette advertising in Britain
after six years of lobbying and court action.

While Alan Milburn, the Health Secretary, celebrated
by tearing down a billboard advert to reveal an
anti-smoking message, cigarette companies
responded by driving around London with a fat lady
singing.

Gangs of workmen were sent out last night to tear
down hundreds of tobacco posters around the
country in time for the Government=92s midnight
deadline.

Faced with such a comprehensive ban covering all
advertising including sponsorship, product placement
and direct marketing, tobacco companies are
expected to put their efforts into promoting brands at
the point of sale.

They have insisted that they will not cut their prices,
as they did after a similar ban in Australia, because
Britain=92s high taxes would mean that it would make
very little difference to overall price.

Britain is the latest in a long list of countries,
including France, Ireland and Norway, to ban all
tobacco advertising, which was last year worth =A330
million to the advertising industry. It is estimated that
about 1.6 million people in Britain saw tobacco
advertising on billboards on any given day last year.

The Tobacco Advertising and Promotions Act 2002
became law in November last year and includes a
ban on in-pack promotion schemes and direct
marketing from May 14, as well as restricting
internet advertising and sponsorship of sporting or
other events by cigarette companies.

The Government hopes that the move will help meet
its target of reducing smoking in Britain from 28 per
cent of the population to 24 per cent by 2010.

The tobacco industry has, however, predicted that it
will have no overall effect on smoking but simply
deter people from switching brands.

Mr Milburn said that he hoped up to 3,000 lives could
be saved each year because of the ban, which was
"a policy we have fought for over the last five years",
he said.

"First, in the European Union, then in the European
courts and in the British courts. At all stages this
measure has been resisted by the tobacco industry.

"Tobacco advertising and sponsorship have acted as
a recruiting sergeant for children and young
teenagers to start the tobacco habit. Adverts have
sought to get more people to smoke by conveying
the idea that smoking is glamorous when in fact it is
dangerous."

The British Medical Association welcomed the ban,
which Vivienne Nathanson, head of its science and
ethics committee, said it had been urging for 40
years. "The next step must be a complete ban on
smoking in public places because passive smoking
kills at least 1,000 non-smokers every year," she
said. "The statistics speak for themselves: 120,000
people die each year from smoking. Half of all the
people who smoke will die from tobacco-related
causes."

Sir Paul Nurse, Chief Executive of Cancer Research
UK, added: "At present 450 British children start
smoking every day. We expect to see this figure
drop as a result of this life-saving legislation."

Tim Lord of the Tobacco Manufacturers=92 Association
said: "It is not advertising which persuades children
to smoke, it is those around them. What this ban
will do is simply stop people from switching brands
and make it very difficult for new brands to enter the
market."


BBC News Online
Thursday, 13 February, 2003, 12:47 GMT
Has the fat lady really sung for cig ads?

By Brian Wheeler
BBC News Online business reporter



The fat lady has finally brought down the curtain on one
of the most colourful chapters in British advertising.

Silk Cut has joined the rush of
tobacco brands indulging in a last
minute spending spree before the
government's advertising ban comes
into effect at midnight.

It will be followed by bans on
direct mail, in-pack
promotion and sponsorship,
spelling the end, in theory,
of the UK's =A3100m a year
tobacco promotion industry.

But the tobacco giants are
unlikely to give up without a
fight.



:
In pictures


Goodbye tobacco ads




They have always viewed regulation as a spur to
creativity - and have overcome apparently
insurmountable hurdles before.

Tight regulation

Banned in the 1970s from using overtly
glamorous or 'cool' imagery, they resorted to an
increasingly surreal approach to sell their deadly
wares.

Amid the oblique images of
gold pyramids and ripped silk,
the only thing that gave away
what was being advertised was
the all-too-familiar health
warning across the bottom of
the ad.

Charles Saatchi's
campaign for Benson
and Hedges was
acknowledged within
the industry as a
classic.

It also helped propel
the brand to number
one slot in the UK market.

This time, the industry insists, it is a different
story.

Moray MacLennan, chief executive of M&C
Saatchi, the agency behind Silk Cut's final =A32.5m
'fat lady' campaign, said: "I think this regulation is
extremely tight.

"There will be nothing open to advertising
agencies in terms of promotion of cigarettes. It is
the end."

Marketing 'challenge'

Dave Betteridge, press relations manager at
British American Tobacco, makers of Rothmans
and Dunhill cigarettes, said the industry was not
interested in "trying to chalk up a hollow victory,
as might have been the case 15 or 20 years
ago".

But he admitted that,
"at some level", the
new restrictions
presented a challenge.

In an article for its
website, BAT's
marketing director Jimmi
Rembiszeewski, says:
"We agree there should
be different rules about
tobacco marketing - and
that's part of the
challenge our marketers
are trained to meet."

Shop displays

The biggest potential loophole in the UK
regulations is so-called "point-of-sale" material.

The government is still in the
process of drawing up
guidelines on the way cigarettes
are displayed in shops.

But a department of
health spokesman
admitted the rules will
only "restrict" instore
promotion rather than
ban it outright.

Dave Betteridge agreed
the challenge would be
to ensure prominent
displays in
supermarkets and bars.

Another potential weakspot is brand extension.

In recent years, tobacco companies have
branched out into clothing and lifestyle products
to build brand awareness.

Marlboro launched a range of clothing and BAT
has experimented with branded coffee shops.

These too will be banned under the new laws,
although the government is still finalising the
legislation.

'Adult choice'

As the ban on overt promotion and sponsorship
comes into force, tobacco companies are likely to
turn to even more subtle methods to recruit new
smokers.

In recent years, most of the
major players have made much
of the claim that smoking is an
"adult choice".

Their corporate
websites are full of
solemn declarations on
the "real health risks"
associated with
smoking.

The UK's second largest
cigarette firm Gallaher,
makers of Silk Cut and
Benson and Hedges,
now prints "For Adult
Use Only" on every pack.

But health campaigners have smelled a rat.

Anti-smoking drive

Amanda Sandford, of Action on Smoking and
Health, said: "They are trying to promote smoking
as an adult activity, which in turn makes it even
more appealing to youngsters.

"That is everything young people aspire to.

"It is clearly just a PR exercise, a complete sham.
We have been trying to alert people to this."

The industry has also come under fire for funding
anti-youth smoking initiatives.

Last year, in an open letter to the tobacco
companies, the World Health Organisation said
"these campaigns have no effect. In some cases
they may actually encourage young people to
smoke."

Cynical PR stunt?

In 2001, BAT trumpeted its backing for a series of
TV ads telling youngsters it was cool not to
smoke.

The =A32.4m campaign, which was seen on UK
screens on cable channel MTV Europe, was jointly
funded by BAT, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco.

BAT initially claimed the campaign had made a
good impact on the target audience of 12 to
17-year-olds.

But it subsequently decided to pull out of the
project after health campaigners accused it of
being a cynical PR stunt.

ASH said the campaign's true audience was
legislators and opinion-formers in charge of
tobacco policy.

But Dave Betteridge insists BAT was just trying
"to do the right thing".

Developing countries

He said it stopped funding the campaign after
consulting experts in the health and education
sector.

"We said: 'If you were us what would you do,
bearing in mind the need to meet the reasonable
expectations of western countries.'

"They said 'we think you should have nothing to
do with anti-smoking campaigns. We think that
sucks'."

BAT does, however, continue to fund
anti-smoking advertising in developing countries,
where it does most of its business.

"There are places where it is welcomed and
places where it is not.

"It depends on the country. The experience in the
UK was that people said we are not really
convinced you should be doing that," Mr
Betteridge told BBC News Online.





Reuters
Death knell sounds for tobacco adverts in Britain
Thursday February 13, 8:00 am ET
By Astrid Zweynert

LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Britain will stub out tobacco advertising on
Friday when it becomes illegal to promote cigarettes through
advertisements in newspapers, magazines and on billboards.

Aimed at cutting down on more than 120,000 smoking-related deaths in
Britain a year, the ban also ends a century of clever and
often artistic advertising.

"For many years, advertisers have wrestled with their
collective conscience over the tobacco issue," John
Tylee, associate editor of advertising magazine
Campaign, told Reuters.

"Now they will be forced to look for new ways to promote
smoking, but from a creative point of view this ends
some of the most innovative advertising ever seen," he
said.

The death knell has been sounding for tobacco
advertisers in Britain ever since the 1960s when the
Marlboro Man disappeared from television screens
following a ban on TV commercials for cigarettes.

In 1971, health warnings appeared on cigarette packs
and ads, culminating in the blunt "smoking kills"
message now found on many packs.

Banned from suggesting that smoking was popular,
relaxing, fashionable or implying that it was linked to
personal success or sexual prowess, advertisers were
forced to explore new ways of promoting their killer
product.

Immortal examples in Britain include the ads for Hamlet
cigars, a widely acclaimed series in which life's trials are
soothed by a smoke to the strains of Bach's "Air on a G
String."

Surreal adverts for Benson & Hedges featured a sequence of unrelated
objects travelling through the Arizona desert.

"Nobody knew what connection there could be between a helicopter, an
iguana, a sardine can and a pack of Benson & Hedges," said
Tylee.

"The ads were surreal and didn't really mean anything -- but people
remembered them."

Some resorted to symbolism and visual jokes, notably Silk Cut, which
never used words or images of cigarettes but relied on striking
pictures of purple silk, cut in various ways.

Mourning the fact that it was all over, manufacturer Gallagher's ran
huge ads in newspapers on Thursday of the legendary fat lady
singing -- dressed in slashed silk.

Hamlet too featured large in the newspapers. A full-page advert read:
"Sod's Law decrees Hamlet moments will never end" and
"Happiness will always be a cigar called Hamlet".

Health campaigners however have hailed the ban as a positive step to
make smoking less attractive.

"This is a great day for public health," said Clive Bates, director of
anti-smoking group ASH.

"It will save tens of thousands of lives as the attractiveness of
cigarettes begins to decline and the tobacco industry struggles to
recruit new smokers."

http://www.crosswalk.com/news/1185574.html?view=3Dprint
Tobacco Ad Ban Comes Into Force In Britain
Mike Wendling
London Bureau Chief

London (CNSNews.com) - A comprehensive tobacco advertising ban will take
effect in Britain on Friday, the result of anti-smoking groups
pushing for greater regulation of cigarette smoking in U.K. offices and
public places.Billboards, magazine advertisements and free promotions
for cigarettes will be outlawed immediately and direct marketing
campaigns along with in-pack promotions will end next month.The law
passed Parliament last October and fulfills a campaign pledge made by
Prime Minister Tony Blair during his first successful election bid as
leader of the Labor Party in 1997. Exceptions have been made for some
sporting events and point-of-sale displays.The Tobacco Manufacturing
Association (TMA), Britain's main cigarette trade group, said its
members would abide by the ban but maintained that cigarette advertising
only encourages consumers to switch brands."Advertising is about brand
choice, not an encouragement to smoke, and we still hold that view,"
said TMA chief executive Tim Lord"We do not expect this ban to have any
significant effect on consumption trends in the U.K.," Lord said,
noting that companies would concentrate ad efforts on point-of-sale
displays. "We are obviously concerned about losing our ability to
communicate with our adult consumers, but the ban is now in place and
obviously we are complying fully with it. However, don't expect
smokers' habits to change too much. Evidence suggests that nothing will
really change," he said.Anti-smoking groups disagreed and quoted
government statistics that indicate that the ban will result in a
reduction in smoking-related illness and could eventually save up to
3,000 lives
per year.Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health, said the
implementation of the ban was a "great moment for public health, a
credit to the government and a measure we've been campaigning for thirty
years." But ASH also warned that tobacco manufacturers could
exploit loopholes in the new law."The tobacco companies will respond by
switching tobacco brands onto non-tobacco products like clothing,
accessories or action holidays," he said. "The measures to deal with
that are weak and delayed for two years.""There was no justification for
making an exception for ads at the place where tobacco is sold," he
said.An ASH spokesman said the group would now be working on tougher
controls on smoking in British workplaces. "This is a major problem at
work and there's lots to be done," the spokesman said. "There's
nowhere near as many controls and restrictions as we'd like."Calls for
more regulation were backed up by the British Medical Association.Dr.
Vivienne Nathanson, head of BMA's Science and Ethics department, said
her group would be looking for a complete ban on smoking in public
places. "Passive smoking kills at least 1,000 non-smokers every year,"
she said. "Let's hope that the government has finally realised that
health protection is too important to be left to voluntary measures."To
mark the impending start of the ban, U.K. Health Secretary Alan
Milburn and other government officials pulled down a tobacco billboard
advertisement in London."Tobacco advertising and sponsorship have
acted as a recruiting sergeant for children and young teenagers to start
the tobacco habit," Milburn said. "Ads have sought to get more people to
smoke by conveying the idea that smoking is glamorous when in fact it is
dangerous." "Advertising works; smoking kills. Today, we are
breaking the link between the two."But Simon Clark, director of the
pro-smoking FOREST group, said the law would have "very little effect"
and predicted that the move might even backfire."This is a pointless
political gesture," he said. "The idea that people start smoking because of
advertising, or are unaware of the health risks, is nonsense.""What
motivates young people to start smoking is peer pressure, not advertising,"
Clark said. "Common sense suggests that the more smoking is attacked by
politicians the more attractive it becomes."'Politicians have no
business banning the promotion of a product that is available in every
supermarket in the country," he said. "'What will nanny ban next? The
advertising of fatty foods and dairy products?"Send a Letter to the
Editor about this article.





02/13 19:12
Britain Bans Tobacco
Advertising,
Restricting Gallaher,
Rivals
By David Altaner

London, Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) --
Britain today bans tobacco
advertising in newspapers,
magazines, cinemas and on
billboards, confining companies
such as British American
Tobacco Plc and rivals to
promoting their cigarettes in
stores.

The U.K. and the 14 other
members of the European Union
last December endorsed rules to
outlaw most forms of tobacco
ads. The region must implement
them by August 2005, at the
latest.

``It's goodbye to tobacco advertising,'' said Tim Robertson, a spokesman
for Gallaher Group Plc, the U.K. maker of
Silk Cut and Benson & Hedges cigarettes. Gallaher has been increasing
the number of its sales staff in response.

The ban comes at a time when U.K. tobacco sales are stalling. About 13
million British people smoke some 56
billion cigarettes a year, most of them made by Gallaher, British
American and Imperial Tobacco Group Plc. The
Department of Health said the prohibition may save as many as 3,000
lives annually.

The EU says tobacco ads make up 3 percent of all advertising in the 15
countries. The U.K. ban follows the
country's 38-year- old prohibition on television commercials for
cigarettes.

Gallaher, Imperial Tobacco, and British American don't disclose their
advertising budgets.

Tax-paid volume in the U.K. was little changed in 2002, at 56 billion
cigarettes, the Tobacco Manufacturers
Association said. Volume has declined in 11 of the past 12 years as
people quit smoking, cut back, or smoke
cigarettes brought in from overseas without paying U.K. tax.

`Fairly Limited'

The FTSE 350 Tobacco Index has fallen 8.8 percent this year, compared
with an 8.4 percent drop in the U.K.
benchmark FTSE 100 Index. The tobacco index drop comes after 2002's 21
percent gain.

Imperial's U.K. managing director, Graham Blashill, said the company
expects to divert the money used for
advertising to its sales force and improving display cases. Regulations
for in-store displays have yet to be announced.

David Betteridge, a spokesman for British American, said the ban ``won't
make much difference'' to revenue because
ads serve mainly to solicit existing smokers to switch brands.

The ban will make the promotion of new brands tougher, said Rey Wium, an
analyst at ING. ``It makes the chance
of success fairly limited,'' he said.

EU governments in December agreed upon rules to stop tobacco companies
from placing magazine ads and
sponsoring sports such as Formula One racing. Health ministers also
agreed to outlaw newspaper, radio and Internet
tobacco advertising.

Too Far

The proposed ban was trimmed to exclude cinema and poster ads after
Europe's high court found an earlier total ban
went too far. Countries may decide to ban such ads, as Britain has done.

In October 2000, British American, Gallaher, Imperial Tobacco and
Rothmans (UK) Ltd. won an appeal in the
European Court of Justice against an earlier ban. They argued that
cigarette advertising is a health issue rather than a
free-trade issue and should be determined by individual states.

The EU's executive arm, the European Commission, intends before the end
of 2004 to propose rules on a common
list of ingredients allowed in cigarettes, requiring tobacco companies
to say what additives are present.

One-third of Europeans smoke, with the heaviest smokers in Greece and
Germany. Sixty percent start at or before the
age of 13, according to the commission.











  'don't stop now' - bma welcomes tobacco advertising ban but urges the
  government to ban smoking in public places
  Press release date: Thursday, 13 Feb 2003 (BMA London)

  On the eve of the implementation of the Tobacco Advertising and
Promotion Act, Dr Vivienne
  Nathanson, Head of BMA Science and Ethics made the following statement:

  "It's fantastic news that from tomorrow there will be no more tobacco
advertising - Britain's
  doctors have been calling for this legislation for over 40 years.

  "While the BMA is delighted that the Government has finally honoured
its 1997 manifesto
  pledge to ban tobacco advertising, we don't want them to stop now.

  "The next step must be a complete ban on smoking in public places
because passive smoking
  kills at least 1,000 non-smokers every year.

  "Let's hope that the Government has finally realised that health
protection is too important to be
  left to voluntary measures. Doctors see first hand the devastating
effects of tobacco every day
  of their working lives. The statistics speak for themselves - 120,000
people die each year from
  smoking. Half of all the people who smoke will die from tobacco
related causes."

  Ends