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 Advertisements
like the one found in the Vancouver Westender on May 25, 2006, mark
the beginning of the return of tobacco advertising. First out the
gate is kid-friendly flavoured chewing tobacco.
Because tobacco companies
stopped advertising in newspapers and magazines after October 1,
2003, you may have thought that such advertisements were illegal.
Not so.
Under the 1997
Tobacco Act, newspaper and magazine advertising is allowed in those
publications having at least 85% adult readers.
The law also allows tobacco companies to send advertisements to
adult Canadians at their home
Although this
includes virtually every magazine & newspaper in
Canada, tobacco companies are not currently advertising in them. It
is understood that they are refraining from doing so while they are
arguing before the courts that the Tobacco Act should be struck down
because it is, in effect, a total ban on advertising. The
National Smokeless Tobacco Company (presumed to still be a
subsidiary of the United States Smokeless Tobacco Company) is
not in court, and is not
a traditional ally of Canada's major tobacco companies.
The advertisements
for SKOAL ran in the free entertainment weeklies that are
distributed throughout Canada's major urban centres. Although
National Smokeless must report its marketing activities and sales
volumes to Health Canada, no information on its direct mail
promotions have yet been made public.
The advertisement for count-em
NINE flavours of SKOAL, pictured below, was provided to us by
the parent of an 18 year old University student to whom they were
sent unsolicited. The same student also received a separate mailing
promoting Access tobacco pouches - including happy tips on how to
use it. .
Canada is one of the very few industrialized countires where tobacco
advertisements, such as these, can be placed in newspapers with no
health warnings. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control,
to which Canada is a member, requires health warnings on any
permitted advertisements, but Canada has not yet implemented any
regulations requiring these warnings.
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