Jump to full article: News Interactive Network/News Limited/News.com (au), 2008-12-14
Author: Sam Kelton Sunday Mail (SA)
Intro: CIGARETTES are being sold at high-end clothing stores and hair salons, in a "tricky and desperate" tactic to lure new young smokers.
A Sunday Mail investigation has discovered smoke company Imperial Tobacco is lavishing trendy Adelaide stores with cash incentives and corporate entertainment in return for stocking Peter Stuyvesant brand cigarettes in specially designed cigarette dispensers.
Marketing kits distributed by the tobacco giant to fashion retailers describe cigarettes as being safe and fashionable: "It used to be extremely dangerous. Now the only danger is you're not the coolest cat on the block."
The tobacco giant's targeting of fashion-savvy outlets to push the trendy brand has prompted calls for a State Government crackdown to ban the practice. . . .
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In the wake of the Sunday Mail investigation, SA Substance Abuse Minister Jane Lomax-Smith ordered a report into the laws on the sale of cigarettes through these outlets.
The investigation discovered:
CASH incentives of up to $2000 a year are offered to stores agreeing to sell cigarettes.
SMOKING is promoted as safe and cool in literature given to targeted fashion outlets.
FREE cigarettes are handed out to stockists.
BOOZY lunches and even a swish cruise have been held for businesses which sell the brand.
The Sunday Mail has confirmed at least six hip outlets - including Glenelg clothing store Zero, city boutique Whistles and CBD hair salon Gang - have started stocking the cigarettes, nicknamed "Stuyvies".
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Quotes from this article:
It used to be extremely dangerous. Now the only danger is you're not the coolest cat on the block.
Marketing kits distributed to fashion outlets in Australia by Imperial Tobacco.
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