Pulling Up Weeds

What a difference six months makes. Back in January the Australian government was in a state of catatonic shock over the perceived lack of respect shown by the British and American Tobacco Company. It was at this time that the 112 year old company put forward that it would distribute ‘Australian favourite’ brand cigarettes, throughout Europe, using the image of a Kangaroo. The Senate said that it was ‘outrageous’ to have a national symbol on the face of such a deadly product.

Fast forward - now, six months later, it looks like BATA (British American Tobacco Australia) would be happy to just have anything on their products; a ‘Joey’ would be welcome addition, as it seems that the Australian world of tobacco has fallen head-first into a communist-style conspiracy. Equal rights for all, as from here on out, brands the nation over are to host identical olive green packaging, complete with graphic images that show the perils of smoking.

So why the ‘volte-face’? Well, extensive research shows that an Australian is less likely to pick up a dull coloured, health warning bearing product than they are a well-navigated piece of branding. Labour Senator John Faulkner put it that “If we can influence ‘one young Australian’ on the issue, then we will have won”.

Naturally, this hasn’t been well received in the corporate rooms of Australia’s leading tobacco companies, least of all Phillip Morris, Australia who claim they have little option but to seek compensation for the ruling.

So far so good for the health lobby? Not so fast. There may be an unfortunate chink in the body politik here. A seeping wound to the roof of the mouth. This legislation may have eradicated one problem but may also have started another. A brand is a marque of differentiation, a symbol that distinguishes either by way of quality or, more simply, by name. It is Capitalism writ large. Once removed, the marketplace becomes a free for all. Anyone can do it. So, in trying to reduce the number of smokers in the country, Australia now risks a small boom of new companies and counterfeiters appearing over the horizon. It is also true that these counterfeiters could contribute to an even more substantial plummet in profits for the big boys, but without any of the risk. Entry-level competition on a David and Goliath scale.

No doubt this is a bandwagon the corporations will attempt, in vain, to climb aboard. However, with the annual global death toll fast approaching 5 million, moral high ground is not really there to be scaled. Their case though, one supposes, might be more to do with Dunhill having to share their bottom line with Steve Irwin’s own brand.

So much for the Kangaroo…

Posted by Idealogy