New type of anti-tobacco ads considered for Canada
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Garfield Mahood (left) and Ron Stewart are pressing the government to use a new kind of anti-smoking ad. (CP/Fred Chartrand) |
DENNIS BUECKERT
OTTAWA (CP) – There's a sinister gleam in their eyes, an evil glee in their smiles. They're discussing ways to recruit young smokers to replace older ones who die.
"After all," quips one of the fictitious tobacco executives, "we're not in this for our health." The group dissolves into gales of diabolical laughter.
The scene comes from a new kind of anti-smoking advertisement developed in California and now being considered for use in Canada.
Health groups say the so-called "denormalization ads," which take aim directly at the tobacco industry, have produced precedent-setting declines in smoking in California and Massachusetts.
The purpose of the ads is to undercut public acceptance of the tobacco business and to portray it as a renegade industry.
"We're calling on the Health Department to take on big tobacco in a massive media campaign," Gar Mahood of the Non-Smokers' Rights Association told a news conference Tuesday.
"These are the ads that work."
Mahood said such advertising direct youth rebelliousness toward tobacco executives rather than teachers and parents.
Derek Kent, a spokesman for Health Minister Allan Rock, said the concept is being considered. "With respect to denormalization . . . we're open to the idea."
California and Massachusetts have offered the award-winning ads, developed at a cost of millions of dollars, for free use in Canada. Kent did not know if Ottawa would accept that offer.
Rock is currently consulting health groups over how to spend $50 million in federal money set aside for tobacco control.
Health groups say strong measures are needed to counter dramatic increases in youth smoking since 1994 when the federal government lowered tobacco prices.
Rob Parker, president of the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council, said he does not believe advertising has any affect on smoking rates, either to increase or reduce them.
"If anybody can come up with advertising campaigns that reduce youth smoking the industry's all for it," he said.
"I have objections to advertising that misrepresents or (is) defamatory to the tobacco industry, of course I do. I have no objections to advertising that actually reduces youth smoking. But I don't think there is such an advertising."
Parker said there's no evidence that the aggressive anti-tobacco campaigns in California and Massachusetts have had any success.
However, the director for the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program said that state has successfully reduced cigarette consumption by 31 per cent since 1991 and improvement in California was even greater.
"The advertising should be part of a larger campaign to denormalize smoking within a society," said Gregory Connolly.
"There's no silver bullet, it's a combination of measures. The advertising is critical in framing the debate and directing the campaign."
He said the state put about $50 million into development and placement of the anti-smoking ads, and these are now available free for any province. They are being widely used in British Columbia, he added.
"We call it the truth campaign. My understanding is they (B.C. health authorities) saw a big public shift in public attitude."
He said the ads paved the way for a variety of other anti-smoking measures in British Columbia.
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