Researchers have launched a Facebook site calling for people to dob in tobacco companies advertising their products online.The site called Monitoring Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship 2.0 is a forum for people to report online cigarette advertising and is part of a University of Sydney research project.

Site founder Becky Freeman says tobacco companies are exploiting social media sites.

“The beauty of Facebook is the anonymity and the reach as well … you can reach thousands and thousands of people for a very low cost,” she said.

“If I were in the tobacco industry that’s exactly where I’d want to advertise.”

Ms Freeman says tobacco companies may also be setting up Facebook groups to help smokers cope with the stigma and social isolation smokers face.

“A lot of smokers now feel quite guilty and regretful about the fact they smoke,” she said.

But Ms Freeman says it is hard to prove tobacco companies are responsible for the content.

“So what we need is lots of eyes and ears on the ground,” she said.

“We’ve launched the Facebook site to try and engage the global community in this monitoring effort.”

Australian legislation does not require the tobacco companies to disclose their marketing budget or plans, Ms Freeman says.

“Advertising and promotional sponsorship [of tobacco products] has been banned in Australia for years and of course that doesn’t mean the tobacco industry is going to roll over and say OK,” she said.

As part of the study, YouTube content is also under scrutiny.

Ms Freeman says home-video style footage of concerts sponsored by tobacco companies could also be advertising campaigns.

“You want that user-generated feel. If it were quite slick and polished we could just point and say ‘yep, absolutely the tobacco industry has had a hand in that’,” she said.

Ms Freeman’s research prompted the Department of Health and Ageing to launch an investigation into tobacco companies’ use of social networking sites last October.

By Thea Cowie, Abc.net

The 12th Habano Festival in Feb 22-26 is one of the most important meetings regarding the marketing of premium-type cigars taking into account the high quality of Cuban cigars.

Main themes of the festival will be the Cohiba and the Romeo and Juliet cigar brands linking the product with women, according to organisers.

As in previous events more than 1,000 people from nearly 50 nations are expected to participate.
The programme includes visits to cigar factories, a trade fair, seminars, tastings, the Habanosommelier contest, a master class in cigar twisting, tours of plantations and a lecture on how to know how old cigar boxes by British Hunter and Frankau CEO, Simon Chase.

A welcoming gala night performance at Havana’s Grand Theater with a concert by six times Latin Grammy laureate pianist Chucho Valdes, will be dedicated to the presentation of new products.

A series of hard-hitting Government adverts showing smokers with maggots, rats and bugs falling out of their mouths may be “graphic and distasteful” but is “unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence”, the advertising watchdog has said. Skip related content

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) rejected 11 complaints over the content of the adverts which targeted smokers in the East and West Midlands areas with the highest number of consumers of illicit tobacco products.

The ASA said: “Although the leaflet’s imagery was unpleasant, we were of the view that because it was targeted at adult smokers, any distress or disgust caused was less likely to be disproportionate to the risk of the recipient consuming illicit tobacco and the hard-hitting approach was more likely to be considered justified by the target audience.”

The posters and leaflet, produced by the East & West Midlands Regional Tobacco Group (EWMRTG), highlighted the dangers of smoking with images of a shocked man smoking a cigarette with maggots, a rat’s back legs and tail, and bugs in his mouth, along with the warning: “Dodgy cigs may contain rodent droppings, bugs and dirt.”

The ASA did not uphold the complaints, saying the posters were suitable for public display.

“We considered that although the posters’ imagery was likely to be seen as graphic and distasteful, it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence, especially because of the serious message it carried: the danger of illicit tobacco and the need to give up smoking,” the ASA said.

“We considered that some children were initially likely to find the strong images unsettling, but because they merely showed shock and surprise on the faces of the smokers and did not depict the infliction of pain and showed tasteless but not violent images, children were unlikely to find them distressing.”

The adverts were designed “to stand out and be memorable, with a message that was very quickly understood”, the EWMRTG told the ASA.

The imagery was bold, unappealing and unpleasant to look at, but would make people think twice about buying illegal cigarettes and was not offensive, disturbing or disproportionate to the adverts’ aims, the EWMRTG said.

It added they were designed to have an “emotive effect” on the consumer and were hard-hitting as they sought to raise awareness of a serious health issue.