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Media release Philip
Morris guilty - Governments urged to crack down on all tobacco promotions
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November 8, 2002 |
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“
In
a victory for health authorities, tobacco giant Philip Morris and its
associated company Wavesnet were fined today in a Sydney Court for
breaching tobacco advertising laws by using fashion shows to promote a
brand of cigarettes aimed at young women. The
tobacco company was fined $9,000 and Wavesnet $15,000 and both were
ordered to pay costs totalling $70,000 for breaches of the NSW Public
Health Act (1991), after both pleaded guilty to promoting Alpine
cigarettes at a national student fashion contest in December 2000.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Australia
congratulated the NSW Health Department for successfully challenging a
tobacco company over aggressive marketing campaigns aimed at young
people. “Tobacco companies need to get the message
that targeting youngsters is not acceptable,” said Anne Jones, Chief
Executive of ASH Australia. “They claim they don’t target teenagers,
but nearly 270,000 Australian children are already weekly smokers, and
many more will join the ranks of addicted smokers - unless governments
act to end all forms of tobacco advertising and promotion. “There is an opportunity under the current
review of the Federal Tobacco Advertising Prohibition (TAP) Act to end
all remaining forms of tobacco advertising including:
“The tobacco industry has a history of using inventive ways of targeting young perople, most recently through sponsorship of events, concerts, rave parties, websites and smoking in films. “Targeting
of youth will only end when we have much tougher and better enforced
tobacco advertising laws banning all forms of tobacco advertising and
promotions and fines of over $1m for breaches”, said Anne Jones. Comment:
Anne Jones, CEO ASH
ph. 0417-227-879 Media inquiries: Stafford Sanders ph. (02) 9334-1823 |
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Page last updated on 8/11/2002 |
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