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• BBC lobbying to weaken Welsh smokefree regulations: Yes, this is real. 

The Welsh Government has launched a consultation to amend the smokefree premises legislation to create an exemption that would allow allow performers to smoke in enclosed and partially enclosed spaces when filming for television or film. The moving force behind this is the BBC, which has lobbied the first minister in Wales, Carwyn Jones, to create this exemption claiming that productions have stayed in England where there is currently such an exemption in the smokefree regulations.

Of all the crazy economic arguments I have heard for exposing people to secondhand smoke, this one takes the cake.

Are we really to believe that the BBC has ignored the fact that it just opened a major new production center in Cardiff, Wales to take advantage of lower labor costs that exist in London just so they can favor actors generate secondhand smoke? I think not.

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Lady Gaga revives her male alter ego Jo Calderone for latest music video 

The 25-year-old singer has revived her male persona Jo Calderone for another video to accompany her single You and I.

The simple black and white fashion film shows the odd character puffing on a cigarette and stripping down to his white underwear while swearing and groping himself. . . .

Can't quit: Calderone smokes a cigarette throughout the black and white video . . .

Stripping off: The alter ego begins taking off his clothes while chain smoking

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Cricket Australia pulls 'tobacco' ad 

Cricket Australia has pulled a mouth freshener advertisement amid complaints it promoted a company that also sells tobacco products.

It says it will withdraw the ads that were displayed on the boundary rope during seven matches between Australia and India after learning they could be promoting tobacco.

Spokesman Peter Young said Cricket Australia had sought a translation of the ads, which are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, from the Indian government and had been reassured that they promoted mouthwash.

But the majority of Indians who saw the ad would immediately associate it with tobacco, said Dr Nevin Wilson, who heads the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease's Southeast Asian office in New Delhi, India.

Dr Wilson said direct or indirect advertising of tobacco products was illegal in India, where there were 900,000 deaths each year related to tobacco.

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Cricket chiefs duped by smoking ads 

CRICKET Australia has banned an advertising campaign which appeared in the recent Test series against India after discovering they may have unknowingly been promoting a tobacco brand.

The sport's governing body faces losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue after pulling the ads from future one-day games.

The Health Department launched an investigation into the Hindi advertisements on the boundary rope for Australia-India Test matches in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide.

The ads for a company that makes chewing tobacco and mouthwash were aimed at the massive TV audience in India. They also featured at the twenty20 games in Sydney and Melbourne and were due to be shown during the on- going one-day internationals this month.

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What’s okay to advertise on TV? 

Cigarettes, gambling, payday loans, abortion providers, prescription drugs and debt finance solutions should not be allowed to be advertised on television, say the majority of British adults, but other potentially controversial subjects, such as alcoholic drinks, political parties, fast food and laser surgery providers should be allowed to advertise in this way, our poll on the issue has found.

* 79% say that cigarettes shouldn't be allowed to be advertised on television

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Tobacco stars in television horror tales 

Television propaganda that graphically communicates the serious harm caused by tobacco use was likely to be effective with smokers in low- to middle-income countries and could be readily translated and adapted for local use, according to a story in The Hindu.

This was one of the key findings of a recent survey conducted in 10 countries where the non government organisation, World Lung Foundation, was working as part of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Smoke.

However, the survey noted that the effectiveness of advertisements with complex medical terms or metaphors, or those that featured personal testimonials was more variable.

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Cricket Australia in India tobacco ad row 

Cricket Australia has pulled Hindi adverts displayed during the series with India after being alerted that they could be promoting tobacco, which would attract big fines for breaching local laws.

Cricket bosses said they were assured by the Indian government that the signage was advertising a brand of mouthwash, but decided to take them down due to their apparent similarity to a brand of chewing tobacco.

"We asked (the Indian government's) advice because we are not familiar with the Hindi language," a Cricket Australia spokesman told reporters on Tuesday.

"They came back and said it's an Indian mouthwash -- or at least they said it's not a tobacco product. We don't have one million percent certainty about all of the detail.

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Cricket chiefs draw line on ads 

CRICKET Australia will surrender hundreds of thousands of dollars in boundary line advertising after it emerged it may have been illegally promoting tobacco.

The snap backdown last night came after the federal Health Department launched an investigation into advertisements in Hindi on the boundary rope for Australia-India Test matches in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide.

The ads for a company that makes chewing tobacco and mouth-wash were aimed at the massive TV audience in India.

They also featured at the Twenty20 games in Sydney and Melbourne and were due to be shown during a series of one-day internationals this month.

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• Fear ads work well 

Television advertisements that graphically communicate the serious harms of tobacco use are likely to be effective with smokers in low- to middle-income countries and can be readily translated and adapted for local use - this was one of the key findings of a recent survey conducted in 10 countries where the non government organisation World Lung Foundation contributed as part of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Smoke.

The survey, however, noted that advertisement with complex medical terms or metaphors, or those that feature personal testimonials, are more variable and require more careful pre-testing and adaptation to maximise their potential.

"In order to test the comprehension, acceptability, and effectiveness of advertisements that emphasize the harms of second hand smoke exposure, especially on children (to the extent of getting smokers to quit) and increase awareness of the harms of second hand smoke exposure (and smoking) among both smokers and non-smokers, we conducted the survey," noted a release issued by the World Lung Foundation.

The aim of the study was to assess the comprehension, acceptability and potential effectiveness of five television advertisements in communicating an anti-smoking message and motivating cessation among adults in low- and middle-income countries. . . .

As part of the study, 2,399 smokers aged 18- 34 years in 10 low to middle income countries (Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Turkey and Vietnam) viewed and individually rated the same five anti-smoking advertisements

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• Cricket Australia in tobacco ad row 

Cricket Australia is facing fines of up to $66,000 for displaying ads in Hindi at the Test cricket series against India that may have been promoting tobacco.

News Ltd reports Cricket Australia has decided to pull the ads, surrendering hundreds of thousands of dollars in income.

The federal Health Department has launched an investigation into the ads in Hindi on the boundary rope for Australia-India Test matches in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide.

The ads were for a company that makes chewing tobacco and mouthwash and aimed at the massive TV audience in India.

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Anti-smoking ads feature missing jaw, oxygen tank, tracheotomy. Do they go too far? 

The ads may be difficult to watch, but American Cancer Society Community Mission Manager Jason Warchal says they do get people's attention.

"If you do smoke, if you do use tobacco, these are the consequences of it," says Warchal. "Many people are diagnosed daily with lung cancer and other types of deadly diseases that are attributed to tobacco use."

According to statistics from the American Cancer Society, about 300 people die from lung and bronchus cancer in Onondaga County each year. Many of those deaths can be prevented.

Leave your comments below or join the conversation on our Facebook page. What do you think?

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‘Teen Mom 2′ Star Leah Messer Is Still Smoking, But Never Around Her Girls 

Leah hasn't managed to lay off the cigarettes, but thankfully she's not smoking around her twin daughters!

Earlier this month, Leah Messer announced that she was trying to kick her smoking habit. Sadly, as reported last week by HollywoodLife.com, the Teen Mom 2 star hasn’t made good on her promise. . . .

We wish that Leah had been able to stick to her goal, but we're glad that she's behaving responsibly by not exposing her daughters to her bad habit!

Do YOU think Leah should have taken her promise to quit smoking more seriously, HollywoodLifers?

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Reach of mass media among tobacco users in India: A preliminary report [FREE FULL TEXT] 

Understanding the role of mass communications in tobacco control and tobacco promotion requires a multilevel approach. At the individual level, one must examine how individual-level factors, such as knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes influence and are influenced by tobacco-related media messages and the channels in which the messages are telecast. At the organizational level, attention needs to be focused on the structure, practices, and tactics employed by various mass media organizations, attempts to influence the news and entertainment media, and the role of regulation and public policy in influencing tobacco communications. Finally, at the population level, it is important to consider the larger cultural environment that is shaped by the interplay of the tobacco industry, mass media, tobacco control researchers, advocates, and policymakers. [12] . . .

» Conclusion

Within the constraints of secondary data analysis, it can be concluded that television is the most commonly used mass media among tobacco users in India. Furthermore, television is the most common source of information regarding AIDS among tobacco users. Hence, television could be used as a viable tool for disseminating information regarding the ill effects of the use of tobacco products. The model of HIV awareness campaign shall be extrapolated to tobacco cessation initiative. However, further longitudinal studies have to be done to assess the impact of such campaigns in television on the tobacco users, to help them stop the habit.

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Excess of smoke on the set of Excess Baggage 

THEY might be cutting back on the junk food but it seems the cast of Excess Baggage - Channel 9's submission into the celebrity weight loss reality genre - are having a little more trouble ditching the smokes.

In between snaps of the D-listers sweating off the kilos are just as many pictures of them sucking down their nicotine fixes, with paparazzi mogul Darren Lyons, Kate DeAraugo and Kevin Federline all among the proud puffers reluctant to butt out.

But as any fitness trainer worth their salt will tell you, smoking and fitness aren't exactly well-known bedfellows.

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CBS = Cigarettes, Breasts, Sex on Monday nights 

Last week seemed typical for CBS' sitcoms on Monday night, television's most popular — and raunchy — night of comedy.

There was a strip club visit on "How I Met Your Mother," lap dance included. The stars of "2 Broke Girls" mistakenly believed an upstairs neighbor ran a brothel. "Two and a Half Men" included jokes about masturbation, oral sex, sex with moms, trading cigarettes for sex and two scenes with loud noises of passion from behind closed doors.

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