Adverts stubbed out

Will a ban on advertising stop you smoking?

If you're a devotee of clever adverts for cigarettes, you should take a long hard look at the billboards today (Thursday).

From midnight tonight, all newspaper, magazine and poster advertising for tobacco becomes illegal. And the regulations are set to get even tighter.

But will banning advertising really stop us taking up a habit which still seems cool to so many young people?

We talked to Professor Gerard Hastings of Cancer Research. He's in no doubt that the ban on advertising is a good thing:

"Nicotine is very addictive," he told us.

"People find it very difficult to give up and it's much more difficult if you walk down the street and there are billboards everywhere advertising cigarettes."

click here to watch our interview in full with Gerard Hastings

click here to read your comments on cigarette advertising

The ban which is permanent will soon be extended even further to sponsorship, and so-called point of sale campaigns, which are typically found in shops and supermarkets.

For the past twenty years, cigarette manufacturers have faced tighter restrictions on what they can and can't show.

That has led to some memorable campaigns that do not actually show the product they are advertising.

The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion act comes into force on Friday, even though it has been vigorously fought by the tobacco industry whose advertising spend is thought to be around £30 million a year.

Legislation welcomed

The lobby group ASH which campaigns against smoking welcomes the legislation. "This is a great moment for public health, a credit to the government and a measure we've been campaigning for thirty years.

"It will save tens of thousands of lives as the attractiveness of cigarettes begins to decline, and the tobacco industry struggles to recruit new smokers to replace the customers that are dying off.

"Without work of the image-makers to mask the reality, smoking will start to feel banal and ultimately ridiculous.

But there is also a warning from ASH that the tobacco companies might place their brands on clothing, accessories or adventure holidays as a way of maintaining their profile and place in the market.

Image

ASH says advertising is very important to the tobacco manufacturers and image is central to the product. "Why else would someone think that inhaling toxic addictive fumes from burning dried leaves in paper was sporty, witty or sharp?"

The UK is the ninth country to impose such a ban which will also extend to the Internet and direct mail.

The number of smokers has dropped from 45 percent in 1974 to 21 in 2001; the Government claims that the ban will eventually save 3000 lives a year.

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