Protect Our Children: Get tobacco out of sight and out of mind
This is an open letter to the people of New Zealand
Is tobacco advertising really a thing of the past?
While most forms of tobacco advertising were banned in 1990, there are still in-store tobacco displays – “Powerwalls.”
Tobacco companies have invested millions of dollars developing these isplays for maximum impact.
Why would tobacco companies do this?
They do it because Powerwalls work – they help sell tobacco and help tempt our kids.
Tobacco has killed more than 170,000 Kiwis since 1950, yet these highly addictive and cancer-causing products are found in more than 8,000 dairies, supermarkets, petrol stations and newsagents throughout the country. Often tobacco is placed right next to products like lollies.
In New Zealand we have regulations for products like pharmaceuticals, asbestos and party pills. Yet tobacco causes more harm. Why, then, can tobacco be widely sold and displayed in shops our children commonly visit?
Protect our children
The impact of Powerwalls on our children is signifi cant. Retail tobacco marketing is associated with the uptake of smoking among children.
Most smokers want to quit
Powerwalls make it harder to quit smoking. Australian research indicates that a third of recent quitters had an urge to buy cigarettes after seeing tobacco displays and a similar proportion agreed that removing tobacco displays would make it easier for them to quit.
Who wants to keep tobacco displayed?
You may have heard comments from the New Zealand Association of Convenience Stores, who have been leading the campaign to keep tobacco retail marketing, claiming it speaks on behalf of retailers.
But whose interests are they really representing? The New Zealand Association of Convenience Stores has tobacco companies on its Board and as ‘Premier Members’.
Click here for more information
References
Paynter J, Edwards R. Bringing down the Powerwall: a review of retail tobacco displays. Poster at the Smokefree Oceania Tobacco Control Conference From Vision to Reality 5 September 2007, (Abstract 137)
British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobaco are 'premier members' of the New Zealand Association of Convience Stores and Imperial Tobacco is on their Board. http://www.nzacs.com/nzacs_premier_members and http://www.nzacs.com/nzacs_board
Write to your MP Write to you MP to tell them to put the right to be smokefree above the right to make a profit from an addictive. Get tobacco out of sight and out of mind. |
Signed
Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners
Cancer Society of New Zealand
The National Heart Foundation of New Zealand
New Zealand Aotearoa Association for Adolescent Health and Development
New Zealand Drug Foundation
Stroke Foundation of New Zealand
Barnados New Zealand
Te Hotu Manawa Maori
Maori Women's Welfare League
New Zealand Nurses Organisation
Paediatric Society of New Zealand
Public Health Association of New Zealand
Royal New Zealand Plunket Society
National Council of Women in New Zealand
Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand
New Zealand Cancer Control Trust
The Quit Group
