Chapter 11 outlines why tobacco advertising is a problem, examines existing Australian national, state and territory tobacco advertising legislation, and details recent and current marketing strategies of the tobacco industry.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) defines tobacco advertising and promotion as ‘any form of commercial communication, recommendation or action with the aim, effect or likely effect of promoting a tobacco product or tobacco use either directly or indirectly’ (p4) and requires that each country shall ‘undertake a comprehensive ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship’ (p11).1 Australia ratified the treaty in October 2004 and is therefore bound by the Convention.
Since the 1980s, Australia has remained a pioneer in the control of tobacco advertising and promotion. Most recently, the Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) Act 2023 (Cth), which commenced on 1 April 2024, modernised and simplified Commonwealth tobacco laws. The Act continues the national prohibition on tobacco advertising and sponsorships, banning any form of communication or activity that directly or indirectly promotes smoking, vaping or the use of tobacco products.
Historically, however, Australia got off to a slow start compared to other English-speaking Commonwealth countries in introducing bans on the broadcast of tobacco advertisements on television and radio. As early as the 1960s, tobacco control advocates such as Dr Cotter Harvey, founder of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health (ACOSH), and Dr Nigel Gray, then director of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria (now Cancer Council Victoria), aimed to put tobacco advertising on the political agenda. Legislation to ban advertising of tobacco products was ACOSH’s first major goal2 and Gray’s most important target in his lifelong commitment to cancer prevention.3 Both men wrote countless letters on the topic and tirelessly sought representations with government ministers at both state and national levels. Dr Gray alone wrote to 14 different Ministers for Communication under seven different governments over a 20-year period.4 In 1971, with smoking rates at record levels and frustrated by the slow pace of change, the Cancer Council produced a groundbreaking series of television commercials featuring high-profile TV actors and comedians parodying popular tobacco advertisements of the time and enlisting the support (including in another advertisement) of Nobel prize-winning Victorian virologist Sir Macfarlane Burnet. It was not until 1973, that a ban on the broadcast of advertisements for tobacco products was finally introduced.
Direct cigarette advertising on radio and television was phased out over the three years between 1 September 1973 and 1 September 1976. Advertising which was construed as ‘accidental or incidental’ to a broadcast or transmission was allowed to continue, a provision included as a late amendment to the legislation before it was passed in 1976. There is little doubt that this amendment occurred in direct response to tobacco industry lobbying. The tobacco industry had already managed to ensure major exposure on television in the US following a direct advertising ban by engaging in sponsorship of sport: they planned to do the same in Australia, provided the legislation gave them the opportunity. Internal industry documents from the 1970s record the Australian general manager of Rothmans stating:
… the reason for the existence of the Rothmans National Sport Foundations and our sponsorships which are being developed in anticipation of restrictive advertising action in Australia.’5
In October 1988, the then Minister for Health, the Hon. Dr Neal Blewett, stated his support for a national ban on tobacco advertising in newspapers and magazines, advising that he would proceed with legislation provided he had the support of the states. In the following year Australian Government support was gained for a ban in the recommendations of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority. In May 1989, that committee, comprising representatives from all major political parties, unanimously recommended to parliament that tobacco advertising be completely banned. In August 1989, Democrat Senator Janet Powell announced her intention to table the Smoking and Tobacco Products Advertisements (Prohibition) Bill, which proposed a ban on tobacco advertising in the print media, billboards and cinema, and to outlaw sporting sponsorship. The legislation was subsequently amended by the government to include print media (locally produced newspapers and magazines), but to exclude cinema, billboard and sponsorship advertising, on the grounds that these more correctly fell within state jurisdictions. The Smoking and Tobacco Products Advertisements (Prohibition) Act 1989 (Cth) (now superseded) was passed on 28 December 1989.6
New legislation passed in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia between 1987 and 1990 sought to outlaw tobacco advertising through sport and the arts. Elsewhere in Australia the ‘accidental or incidental’ exemption in the Broadcasting Act and the 1989 legislation continued to allow advertising of tobacco products on player uniforms and at sporting venues. These were clearly readable in television broadcasts and newspaper photographs throughout the entire country. The association of sports people with tobacco was hugely beneficial to the image of tobacco products. Sponsorship of sport and the arts also gave tobacco company executives access to politicians in an informal environment at functions associated with sporting and cultural events. With tobacco companies sponsoring all of the football codes (Australian Rules, rugby and soccer), the Australian Opens in tennis and golf, motor racing in all forms, major opera and ballet companies and many other sports, arts and cultural groups, events and festivals, tobacco advertisements were ubiquitous. Sport became the major battleground for further restrictions on tobacco advertising during the early 1990s, particularly after health promotion foundations in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and elsewhere demonstrated that alternative sponsors were not so difficult to attract.7
With the passage on 17 December 1992 of the Australian Government’s Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act 1992 (the Act) (now superseded),8 most forms of tobacco sponsorship were phased out by December 1995, with cricket sponsorship concluding on 30 April 1996. After 31 December 1995, advertising on billboards, illuminated signs and other outdoor signs was banned. In the late 1990s, Industry marketing efforts shifted to include event promotions, trade marketing, in-store displays and innovative packaging.9,10 To address these methods of promotion, in the early 2000s, Australian states and territories introduced retail display bans of tobacco and the Australian Government introduced amendments under the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Amendment Act 2012 (Cth) (now superseded) to make it an offence to advertise tobacco products on the Internet and in other forms of electronic media.
Under the Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) Act 2023 (Cth) (currently in force), online tobacco advertisements remain prohibited. Restrictions on tobacco marketing and promotion under the Act also include that tobacco products must:
- meet plain packaging requirements (see InDepth 11A Packaging as promotion: Evidence for and effects of plain packaging)
- not use appealing or variations of brand names
- not contain attractive product features, such as crush balls and flavour beads
- be presented in the standardised pack and cigarette size, and
- include mandatory health warnings, health promotion inserts and on-product health messages.
Further information on these laws is provided in Section 11.3 Commonwealth (national) legislation. The Australian Government has also developed a Guide to advertising and sponsorship prohibitions, published online at https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/guide-to-advertising-and-sponsorship-prohibitions.
Despite Australia’s robust laws, the Internet, particularly social media, remains a vehicle by which young people can still be exposed to tobacco marketing as well as to the normalisation of smoking and vaping. Additionally, tobacco retailers engaged in the illicit trade of tobacco and other non-therapeutic nicotine products continue to flout advertising and promotion bans by displaying and supplying products that do not comply with federal packaging and product requirements. For more information about measures to address the illicit trade, see Section 13A.9 Measures to further strengthen the current regulatory settings to address illicit tobacco trade in Australia. At the federal level, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing is responsible for enforcing the national tobacco advertising and sponsorship ban. At the state and territory level, health departments and law enforcement agencies are responsible for enforcing compliance within their respective jurisdictions.
Glossary of key advertising terms
Above-the-line: marketing via the mass media (print, television, radio, posters/billboards and cinema)10
Advertising: any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor11
Below-the-line: marketing via methods other than mass media (print, television, radio, posters/billboards and cinema)10
Branding: the use of a name, term, symbol or design to identify a product12
Buzz marketing: using popular entertainment or news to encourage people to talk about a brand or product13
Dark market: highly restricted marketing environment9
Guerrilla marketing: a form of unconventional marketing, such as chalk messages on a sidewalk, which is often associated with staged events14
Marketing: business activities that direct the exchange of goods and services between producers and consumers14 and includes not only the advertising and other forms of promotion of products but also pricing, packaging and distribution or ‘placement’ (known as the ‘four Ps’ of marketing)
Mobile seller: a salesperson who carries tobacco products in a tray or container for the purpose of selling the product directly to customers in venues like bars or outdoor events
Non-branded advertising: advertising that promotes smoking but contains no specific tobacco brand
Open source marketing: collaboration between consumers and brand owners on the development and promotion of products and services15
Point-of-sale marketing: the arrangements of product and placement of promotional material in retail stores16
Product placement: paid promotion of a product or brand through movies, television and other entertainment media, often incorporated into the storyline17
Promotion: the coordination of all seller-initiated efforts to set up channels of information and persuasion to sell goods and services or to promote an idea. The tools can include advertising, direct marketing (communicating directly with consumers), sales promotion (marketing aimed at the sales force or distributors) and public relations (execution of strategies that earn public understanding and acceptance)18
Relationship marketing: the ongoing process of identifying and maintaining contact with high-value consumers14
Social network marketing: unlike traditional forms of marketing that seek to target customers with advertisements, companies and marketers that successfully join in this complex network of relations seek to befriend their customers by incorporating them into cyberspace social networks19
(Tobacco) sponsorship: any form of contribution to any event, activity or individual with the aim, effect or likely effect of promoting a tobacco product or tobacco use either directly or indirectly20
Split packs: tobacco packs that can be divided into multiple, smaller packs once purchased; the smaller packs sometimes do not bear the required health warnings and information
Tobacco display: tobacco products visible at retail stores
Trade marketing: marketing that relates to increasing demand for products at wholesaler, retailer or distributor level rather than more directly at the consumer level
Viral marketing: creating entertaining or informative messages that are designed to be passed along, like a virus, in an exponential fashion, often electronically or by email13
Word-of-mouth marketing: the creation and dissemination of advertising that encourages people to talk about the brand or products; includes buzz marketing and viral marketing, known as word of mouse when conducted electronically13