SMOKERS GO TO WAR

SMOKERS GO TO WAR (NEWS)

(Tuesday Telegraph 5^th April 2011) By: Andrew Carswell. (EXCLUSIVE)

Big tobacco is mobilising an army of smokers to fight back against ‘excessive’ bans on smoking and rising taxes.

Dubbed: I Deserve To be Heard, the campaign by Philip Morris is not being preached from megaphones, though ads or splashed on roadside billboards but on tiny paper cards discreetly placed inside its cigarette packages.

The leaflets urge smokers to lobby governments to prevent rumoured bans being considered on smoking in certain outdoor areas.

Bans on outdoor smoking, increased taxes, cigarettes not on display and now plain packaging for cigarettes – what’s next? It’s time to tell the government that you have had enough, the flyer says.

It also directs aggrieved smokers to the campaign website where it claims: Australia is already one of the most over-governed ‘nanny state’ countries in the Western world. As a smoker, you have every right to feel annoyed and hard done by.

Philip Morris Australia said it was merely acting on the concerns of its customers.

They want a voice on regulations that are excessive and do not make sense – this website provides them with just that, an opportunity to be heard, the company said.

Philip Morris owns a 16 per cent share of the international cigarette market outside the US, with its Marlboro label the world’s top-selling brand. It’s stable of cigarette labels also includes popular Australian brands Peter Jackson and Longbeach. Last year it sold $27.2 billion worth of cigarettes and cigars, banking $11.5 billion in profit.

Ant-smoking advocates are incensed with the ‘sneaky’ campaign, given Philip Morris would reap significant financial rewards by having any future smoking bans halted.

This is a website set up by a tobacco company whose No 1 priority is to sell a highly addictive product, a product that kills 15,000 Australians a year, Cancer Council manager of tobacco control Kelly Williams said.

It is sneaky, but it is also pretty obvious where it is coming from. The public will see through it.

The dumped NSW Labour government was considering a statewide ban on smoking in public areas such as alfresco dining spots, children’s playgrounds and bus stops.

The current NSW Tobacco Strategy also recommends bans on smoking in outdoor areas such as concerts, markets and shopping malls, bans already in place in many council areas across Sydney.