On the 1st December 2012, plain packaging will be introduced in Australia. Cigarettes will be required to be sold in olive green packaging with large pictorial health warnings and brand names appearing in standardised font. Ahead of the legislation, Imperial Tobacco has changed the packaging of their Peter Stuyvesant brand to show a ripped branded pack exposing plain packaging underneath with the accompanying slogan “it’s what on the inside that counts”.
Australia’s Federal Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek has spoken out, “For a company to have produced packs that contain the line, ‘It’s what’s on the inside that counts’ must surely be the ultimate sick joke from big tobacco…Diseased lungs, hearts and arteries are the reality of what is happening on the inside to a smoker.”
Speaking on ABC News today in Australia on 12th September 2012, Plibersek claimed that the Imperial campaign is a “last desperate attempt for them [Imperial Tobacco] to use their branding to retain and attract new smokers..."
For more information on tobacco industry advertising to consumers click here and for other information on how the industry attempts to influence decision makers see corporate political advertising.
