.Right: Lucky Strike cigarettes were advertised as being endorsed by doctors. Several other brands claimed "recommendation" from medical professionals.
Further implications
The regulations proposed by the Australian federal Government is a world first. No other country in the world has yet to attempt to ban branding on cigarette packages. The proposal has been considered in a variety of jurisdictions but has not been put into effect. If the Australian legislation is successfully enacted and survives whatever legal challenges the tobacco industry mounts, similar legislation is likely to be put into place in many other countries.Though it is impossible to confidently predict what its impact will be, the general reduction in cigarette smoking which has followed bans on cigarette advertising and the inclusion of health warnings on cigarette packets suggests that this measure is likely to see a further reduction in the number of Australians who smoke.
The plain package measure is not a stand-alone proposal. It is coupled with an excise increase which will cause the cost of cigarettes to rise, a new anti-cigarette advertising campaign and a ban on internet cigarette advertising. These last three measures are an important part of the total effort to reduce the number of smokers in Australia.
As the number of people taking up smoking and continuing to smoke declines, the government is going to have to very carefully target those particular demographics who are still smoking. Included among these groups are obviously young people. The government's new measures should all have an impact on young people who either smoke or are contemplating taking up the habit. Other key groups with a disproportionately high smoking profile are the unemployed, the mentally ill and Indigenous Australians. The Government may well need to develop quite specific strategies to discourage those in these groups from smoking.
The tobacco industry is likely to attempt to find other advertising avenues including package inserts and differentiating the cigarettes themselves. The National Preventative Health Taskforce's report predicted that cigarette manufacturers would adopt such strategies and warned that the Government must be prepared to ban these also.
Finally, as cigarette smoking becomes a more and more expensive habit and becomes a habit more particularly indulged in by lower socio-economic groups, it becomes likely that illicit tobacco (chop-chop) and illicit cigarettes will become a greater problem. Cigarette supply may begin to take on some of the characteristics of the illicit drug trade.