Rupe’s downmarket troops at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun
have taken their website behind a paywall, but one reader of yesterday’s print
edition decided, after a visit to the local Costa Coffee, to leave it behind, a
move that is entirely understandable, given the quality of the content, or lack
of it. So the
contents of Pages
22 and 23 have found
their way to Zelo Street.
And what
they reveal is that
the Murdoch press is up to the
same misleading tactic that got The
Australian called out by
Paul Barry on ABC Media Watch
last month. Yes, once again, dear Uncle Rupe is so concerned about the health
of his readers that he wants more of them to take up smoking. “Will new laws make smoking cool again?”
asks the headline, to which the answer is no.
Readers are told “new
figures from Oz seem to show that sales of ciggies have increased since the ban
on branding and standardisation of packaging came into force”, and
particular attention should be paid to the word “seem”, because we have been here before. Here’s what
I said last month.
QTWTAIN ...
“There was an increase
in the number of cigarettes manufactured and sold on to retailers, but this was
almost certainly down to those retailers wanting to beat an increase in the
tobacco tax”. The reality? “Between
the last quarter of 2012, when plain packaging was introduced, and the first
quarter of 2014, tobacco consumption had fallen by 5.3%. The tobacco industry
has admitted that the number of smokers fell last year by 1.4%, with those that
still smoke consuming 1.4% less in tobacco”.
This has not prevented a corker of an excuse being pushed by
the Sun: “the tobacco industry is claiming the hard-hitting plain packaging has
actually made smoking seem even cooler ... Because as all parents of teenagers
know, making something seem illicit often just makes it all the more attractive”.
And to that I call bullshit: it’s not being subject to prohibition. You can
still buy cigarettes legally.
... and this is why
The Sun’s Big
Tobacco apologia is backed up with the
usual tired drivel: there will, it is alleged, be a gap in the market which
will be occupied by smugglers. Except that, as already pointed out, cigarettes
will still not be illegal, and so you will still be able to buy them at your
local corner shop or supermarket. The reality that the industry doesn’t want to
get out is that consumption is falling.
Moreover, those still smoking are switching to cheaper
brands, doubling the profit hit on Big Tobacco. And the Sun’s copy has barrel-scraping moments, such as quoting a
shopkeeper who says “It would make life
even harder for shopkeepers by making products more difficult to find”.
How? They’re in a closed cabinet behind the counter. And still will be,
whatever the packaging. This is truly lame stuff.
Still, it’s consistently lame. And, thanks to Media Watch, we’ve been forewarned.
Murdoch's quid pro quo for Lynton Crosby?
ReplyDeleteWomnder what Rupe's got coming up that might need some oil on troubled water?