Convenience store power walls were the brilliant response of a cigarette industry cornered by advertising restrictions -- banning them will save lives
Jump to full article: Ottawa (Ont) Citizen (ca), 2008-04-30
Author: Dan Gardner, The Ottawa Citizen
Intro: "In the name of science," wrote an editorialist in Maclean's magazine, "we are to believe that, like the sight of a lady's ankle in a previous era, the mere glimpse of a pack of cigarettes will bring on a paroxysm of uncontrollable urges. This isn't science, it's political symbolism." . . .
I'm sure many people feel the same way. Given this premier's record, it's hard not to.
But this time, Mr. McGuinty is right. There are solid, empirical reasons to believe the display of cigarettes in corner stores promotes a habit that is the leading cause of preventable death. And it mainly does so among minors. . . .
And do not doubt that the tobacco industry makes use of the latest psychological research.
For my book, Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear, I interviewed American psychologist Paul Slovic, who was an expert witness for the U.S. government in a landmark lawsuit against Big Tobacco. "I was given some marketing documents from the tobacco industry going back 20 or 30 years," Slovic told me. "It was stunning. It was shocking. Consultants for the tobacco companies were doing studies and reporting the results, and basically they were 20 years ahead of many of the cognitive and social psychologists in understanding the importance of affect."
From the beginning, cigarette marketing has been both sophisticated and successful. . . .
Reversing that change requires "denormalization." If most people rarely or never encounter cigarettes, they will become strange. Positive feelings and associations will fade. Perceived risk will rise.
And most importantly, our social natures will encourage us to conform to a healthy norm. Simply by advertising that "most Montana teens are tobacco-free," report Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in the new book Nudge, the state has produced "big improvements in the accuracy of social perceptions and also statistically significant decreases in smoking."
Whatever the political symbolism involved, that's science. And politicians are right to act on it.
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