Internet a Way to sell more Cigarettes

Published on October 26, 2009 10:33 AM

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There are anxieties that some Tobacco Companies are using the internet by utilizing social networking sites such as Face Book and My Space for to sell more cigarettes.

The student Becky Freeman said: "Fan groups for tobacco companies have been set up on such sites to promote products, encouraging a performance that many are trying to reduce."

She explained that a meeting in Darwin this week found that the tobacco industry is abusing the internet because the web does not have the same advertising controls as print and television.

"I think what we need to have in Australia is needed disclosure from tobacco companies on where they are expending their advertising money," she added.

Nicola Roxon, Federal Health Minister said that it looks like tobacco companies are trying to get close to Australia's strict legislations.

Ms. Roxon reported: "I don't think it is good form for tobacco companies to be out trying to hook young people onto tobacco when we know the damage that it causes. I have asked my department to get the details, find out how much this is happening and to advise me on any actions that can be taken if that's appropriate."

A recent study found that 15,500 Australians die every year due to smoking-related diseases. Deborah Gillespie, Cancer Council Queensland community education strategies manager declared that the internet is a forum used more by young people.

"Research has told us that young people are especially exposed to all kinds of promotion around tobacco and they're easily influenced by marketing in any format," she added.

Curtin University behavioral research professor Rob Donovan has been involved in tobacco research for 35 years and argued that there are very few ways left for tobacco companies to promote their products.

He explained that he thinks that some companies are paying users to promote their products on social networking sites too. "Twitter and My Space and those sorts of sites have been touted as the voice of the consumer and that the corporate world can't control this sort of thing," he said.

Such kind of problem has grown in the US as well.

But unlike Australian Government the Federal Trade Commission of the United States plans to introduce a new legislation which will fine people who accept money to promote a tobacco product but don't disclose that.