Perth Now. Peth Australia, 30 de agosto de 2012

Big tobacco brands to target teens to shore up smoking rates as plain packaging bites
by:Health Reporter Jordanna Schriever


CIGARETTE companies will ramp up their fight to attract more teenagers using marketing tactics to prevent smoking rates from falling, experts warn.

Their tactics will target teenagers and include reduced prices, sexier names and flavour variations, and their preferred brand would always be in stock.

Associate Professor Jenni Romaniuk, international director at UniSA's Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, said the companies would use "product innovation" techniques to vary formulations - and create new flavours to encourage teenagers to connect with a certain brand.

"Companies will not be able to use their packaging to appeal to consumers or appear more glamorous, so they need to find new ways to attract new customers," she said.

Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney Simon Chapman said most smokers take up the habit between the ages of 16 and 19 years.



"It's very, very rare for anybody to take up smoking after the age of about 23," Prof Chapman said.

"If they don't get that group smoking their brand then, really, they've lost an investment of a lifetime.

"Smokers tend to be pretty loyal and stick with brands through their smoking career."

The move is expected to follow a recent motion that was passed in Tasmania's Parliament that called on the Government to create a "smoke-free generation".

Under the plan, anyone who was born after the year 2000 would be banned from buying cigarettes when they turn 18.

South Australian Health Minister John Hill said that any strategy to stop young people from smoking was "worth considering".

Cancer Council SA chief executive Professor Brenda Wilson said the motion recognised that most smokers became addicted during their teens.

SA Health figures show 20.7 per cent of South Australians aged 15 and over smoke either daily or occasionally.

A spokeswoman for Drug and Alcohol Services SA said the primary target of the South Australian Tobacco Control Strategy 2011-2016 was to reduce the percentage of young cigarette smokers aged 15-29 to 16 per cent by 2016.

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