TAPS

Tobacco display bans and supermarket “prime real estate”

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:48:00 +1100

A couple of years ago, I read an article that demystified how and where products are displayed in supermarkets. It described in great detail the bidding process between brands for prime placement, and how virtually no placement is random. Supermarkets charge a premium to be at eye level, at the entrance, and at ends of the aisle where they can catch shoppers' attention. The article made me realise different areas of the supermarket are essentially chunks of valuable real estate which follow the age-old rule of "location, location". It changed forever the way I look at shops, especially Australia's big two supermarkets.

Earlier this year, legislation came into effect in NSW that all tobacco products must be hidden from view. "Power walls" of tobacco displays used to dominate the customer service counter at the front of shops; now shoppers are confronted with a largely blank area. Knowing how valuable every square metre in a supermarket is, it seems bizarre that this prime space is taken by a bland cabinet and dominated by an enormous poster warning of the dangers of the product hidden from sight. While some other products are starting to creep in, the space is largely a void. Are the tobacco companies paying to keep other products out? Admittedly, legislation dictates that tobacco products can only be sold from one counter, but surely supermarkets would be better off giving the space over to "power walls" for more lucrative products with a brighter sales future - download vouchers, mobile phone products, even the ever-expanding pharmaceutical ranges they are carrying (including nicotine replacement therapy products, which are apparently a big target for thieves). It is hard to believe that other big companies are not bidding to pull this space away from tobacco companies.

I can't help wondering how much it costs the tobacco companies to continue to occupy this prime space in the face of declining returns. When will we reach the tipping point where it is no longer worth the while of supermarkets to even carry cigarettes? With plain packaging around the corner, which is likely to further dampen the enthusiasm of young people to take up smoking, perhaps we don't have to look too far into the future to imagine cigarettes being the exclusive domain of a dwindling number of specialist tobacconists. No wonder the industry fights tooth and nail against these kinds of restrictions!

Picture courtesy of www.ashaust.org.au

Social media and tobacco control in Germany, Switzerland and Austria

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 22:16:00 +1000

The advent of social media such as Facebook and user-generated content sites such as YouTube have changed the face of marketing, opening up a world of opportunity for tobacco companies otherwise constrained by all those pesky advertising restrictions. This presents tobacco control with a constantly moving target and new challenges not imagined as recently as 5 years ago - but it is also bringing revolutions in some unexpected places.

In July 2010, the German state of Bavaria voted in favour of a total indoor smoking ban, an extraordinary achievement given years of false starts and Germany having one of the strongest tobacco lobbies in Europe. The vote was held after a petition initiated by politician Sebastian Frankenberger, a member of the Ecological Democratic Party and savvy user of Facebook. He says social media had not previously been important in German political campaigns, but Facebook was crucial to success for this campaign. With nearly 30,000 members, he used it as a forum to generate campaign ideas from supporters, to recruit volunteers to hand out information on the streets, and to plan how to target the campaign - especially in country areas where fewer people use the internet. As a result, the petition for the vote attracted 1.3 million signatures, forcing the Bavarian Government to either adopt the legislation or hold a referendum. They chose to go to a referendum, and the yes vote succeeded with a 61% majority.

The non-smoking majority had long been denied the right to protection from environmental tobacco smoke by the powerful political and media connections of the tobacco lobby in Germany. It is hard to imagine that this vote could have happened without the use of Facebook - Frankenberger says the last referendum in 1998 was far more difficult to realise. This vote is a great example of the power of social media to advance tobacco control, and cut through the lies, obfuscation, deception - and political power - of the tobacco industry. More information about the referendum and to link to the Facebook page is available at:
http://www.nichtraucherschutz-bayern.de/index.php (German only - for translation into other languages, www.translate.google.com is highly recommended)

Another great example of Facebook helping to advance tobacco control is http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=164459423914, a page which was set up last year to end Davidoff sponsorship of the Swiss Indoor tennis event. The campaign attracted support from several countries and faced legal challenges along the way, but eventually won - the sponsors withdrew last month! Read more by going to the link.

In Austria, a Facebook group has been set up to generate support for a citizen's petition to implement comprehensive indoor smoking bans. It has over 110,000 members, enough to force the government to consider the issue. The link to page is at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=207474724730&v=wall&ref=ts (German only).

Do you know of other examples of successes in tobacco control using social media? Please let us know!

URGENT ACTION: Tell Kelly Clarkson to Breakaway from Big Tobacco

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:29:00 +1000

International public health advocates are calling on U.S. singing star and American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson to withdraw tobacco industry sponsorship of her April 29 concert in Jakarta, Indonesia. 400 thousand Indonesians are dying each year from smoking related illnesses and business couldn't be better for tobacco companies. Indonesia does not have the same tough tobacco advertising bans that the industry faces in countries like Canada, Australia, and the UK.

Simply click through to join this Facepage to show your support for the health of Indonesian children:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tell-Kelly-Clarkson-to-drop-tobacco-sponsorship/110657445641541

Please forward on to all your contacts, the more public support we have, the more likely it is that Kelly and her management team will pay attention and drop big tobacco from her tour.

BAT Employees on Facebook

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:13:00 +1000

Most of you probably have Facebook accounts - 75% of Australian Internet users have visited Facebook, 59% have a Facebook account. The average time spent on Facebook in a given month is an astounding 8:19 hours (all outside of work hours, of course). These are incredibly attractive numbers to marketers!!

In our latest publication, we found that some BAT employees are energetically promoting BAT and BAT brands on Facebook through joining and administrating groups, joining pages as fans, and posting photographs of BAT events, products, and promotional items. BAT employees undertaking these actions are from countries that have ratified the WHO FCTC which requires signatories to ban all forms of tobacco advertising, including online and cross-border exposure from countries which are not enforcing advertising restrictions.

The results of our research could be used to test the comprehensiveness of the advertising ban by requesting that governments mandate the removal of this promotional material from Facebook.

Freeman B, Chapman S. British American Tobacco on Facebook: undermining Article 13 of the global WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Tob Control. Published Online First: 15 April 2010 doi:10.1136/tc.2009.032847

Cheers,
Becky

Pigs in Cigs

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:03:00 +1000

Our first guest blogger is Stan Shatenstein, a tobacco control expert from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Stan is the coordinator of GLOBALink News & Information Monitoring Initiative (an international listserv of tobacco control stakeholders) and a Tobacco Control journal Contributing Editor, responsible for Lighter Side content. He writes about how intriguing information, in this case how there could be pig's blood in cigarettes, can be so quickly spread through online and news and entertainment media. This is a powerful lesson for advocates and researchers wanting to harness the power of the web and mass media to spread health information.

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Although his name may be unfamiliar to those outside of the US, Canada, UK and Australia, Stephen Colbert, host of the Colbert Report on the US Comedy Network, is quite an influential comedian. Having started as a correspondent on Jon Stewart's newsmaking Daily Show, Colbert now plays a benighted 'journalist' on his own programme. He gave the English language the word truthiness, among other creations.

On April 7th, he picked up the pig blood story and gave a "reluctant wag of the finger to the tobacco industry". Claiming to be "a huge fan of inhaling flaming leaves and paper" he noted that "Australian researchers" (sic) found the presence of pigs' blood in cigarettes and lamented that the inclusion of such "disgusting ingredients" could "ruin the delicious flavour of the tar, fibreglass and ammonium phosphate". Colbert then went on, aided by actor Jeff Goldblum, to perform to perform minor surgery - a 'circumcision' - on a cigarette filter.

It's hard to say what influence this comedy bit will have on global cigarette consumption, but it does show the power of information. A single young Dutch designer, Christien Meindertsma, decided to trace "what happened to the body parts of a specific commercially raised pig" and published a book, Pig 05049, based on her findings. The UK Guardian/Observer newspaper reported on the book and Globalink listserv member Cecilia Farren spotted the mention "that hemoglobin from pig blood is used in cigarette filters". Cecilia pointed out this intriguing fact on Globalink, several of other members provided background information on the pig blood 'Bio-filter' developed in Greece, then Simon Chapman brought the story to the attention of the Australian media and now the news has truly gone global. Nice work.

I believe the Colbert Nation website clips can only be viewed in a few countries outside of the US. But here is a link to the clip. (There is a perfume commercial beforehand that you will be forced to watch. After that, push through to the 3:42 minute mark if you don't want to watch Colbert lampoon "Hello Kitty" wine before the cigarette sketch.)

The April 7th episode can also be purchased through the iTunes Store.

Stan

Ferrari Finds Smoke Without Fire

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:22:00 +1000

I watched the Melbourne Grand Prix on TV yesterday - my husband is a big fan - and I couldn't help but notice that the Ferrari car is still sporting that strange bar code symbol on its cars.

Given that PMI is reportedly paying between $100 and $130 million for this "non-sponsorship" - the company must see significant commercial value in the partnership - despite the fact that the official, trademarked logo doesn't appear on the car.

I don't believe that the goal of tobacco advertising bans was to allow sponsorship to continue - provided no registered trademarks were visible - but to actually ban tobacco companies from sponsoring popular events, like the Grand Prix.

You can read an advertisers view of the potential effect of the Marlboro non-logo here.

Becky

iPhone Apps

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:25:00 +1100

I recently wrote a blog for the BMJ on the "healthfulness" of iPhone apps. You can read the full posting here. But, I did come across a few apps that were relevant to tobacco control. There were dozens of quit smoking apps - ranging from self hypnosis to cigarette break tracking. Most apps only cost a few dollars so I suppose even if they are fairly useless there isn't much harm done.

I did come across one app for a Zippo lighter...

"......If you reminisce for the days when concerts goers held up cigarette lighters during rock ballads, Zippo has developed a virtual lighter you can install in your iPhone and proudly wave above your head. Is this a harmless bit of fun or an attempt to reinvigorate the decidedly passé cigarette lighter by associating it with modern technology?"

There's also the iSmoke (see the image posted with this blog) - which basically turns your iPhone into a virtual pipe or cigarette. Is it just really lame or does it normalise smoking?

Anyway - I'll be keeping a close eye on iPhone apps to see if any other pro-smoking or even cigarette brand apps come on board.

Cheers,

Becky