[Intl-tobacco] Australia: Cigarette firms cough up for new anti-smoking campaign

[Robert Weissman]

Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/cigarette-firms-cough-up-for-new-antismoking-campaign/2005/12/26/1135445527197.html

Cigarette firms cough up for new anti-smoking campaign
By Geesche Jacobsen
December 27, 2005

A $9 MILLION anti-smoking advertising campaign, paid for by cigarette
companies, was launched yesterday to encourage more smokers to quit.

The television, radio and print campaign was agreed to under a deal with
the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

The message "All cigarettes are toxic" warns that colouring, numbering
and descriptions now used on cigarette packaging falsely suggest low-tar
cigarettes are less unhealthy than full-strength ones.

After a recent commission ruling banned tobacco companies from using the
terms light and mild, they have substituted colour coding and the use of
numbering to suggest the tar content, along with words such as smooth,
fresh and fine, the organisation Quit says.

Almost four in five smokers smoke cigarettes once described as mild or
light, said the executive director of Quit, Todd Harper.

But research shows smokers compensate for low-tar content by
inadvertently smoking differently, giving them the same amount of tar
and nicotine - and health risks - as when they smoke high-tar cigarettes.

Anne Jones, head of the anti-tobacco group Action on Smoking and Health,
said: "Smokers think if they go from a [cigarette labelled] 12 to an
eight, to a four or a two, they are getting less of something."

The Australian Medical Association's president, Mukesh Haikerwal, said
the campaign was long overdue. "Tobacco industry efforts to push these
products on smokers through slick advertising with the promise that
light cigarettes are less harmful than other cigarettes are a dishonest
attempt to make the industry look more responsible," he said.

Ms Jones said that in March, new graphic health warnings would be
required on all packs, and a government advertising campaign
foreshadowing these was scheduled for February.

It was hoped these campaigns would reduce current smoking rates by one
or two percentage points - or about 250,000 adults - from the current 20
per cent of the population, she said.

The new ads are the result of an ACCC ruling, which found marketing
claims of health benefits from low-yield cigarettes had been misleading
and possibly breached trade practices legislation.