Health groups are urging the state government to ban price boards used by cigarette retailers, with new research revealing tobacco companies are using the boards to target different socio-economic groups.
Quit Victoria, Cancer Council Victoria, Heart Foundation Victoria and the Australian Medical Association Victoria are also calling for a ban on cigarette vending machines and an end to point-of-sale display exemptions for specialist tobacconists.
New research from the Cancer Council of Victoria suggests tobacco companies are dictating the order of their products on the generic boards to appeal to wealthy and poorer consumers.
The study of 154 shops found more costly, premium brands such as Dunhill and Benson and Hedges were more likely to be in top positions on price boards in mid and high socio-economic areas than those in poorer areas. Value brands such as Holiday and Horizon were more likely to be in the top positions in low SES areas.
Fifty-six per cent of stores in mid socio-economic areas and 62 per cent of store in high socio-economic status areas had premium brands in the top positions, compared to just 39 per cent in low SES areas.
Forty-three per cent of stores in low-SES areas had lower-priced, value brands in the top positions compared to just 15 per cent in high SES areas.
Quit Victoria chief executive Fiona Sharkie said the placement of the brands was not “an accident” and described the practice as troubling
“They are using price to target audiences which is a form of promotion and communicating to an audience. It is yet again another mechanism the tobacco industry are using.”
The research also showed that in 143 of the 145 surveyed stores, at least three of the top four brands on the board were owned by the same tobacco company.
AMA Victoria president Stephen Parnis said the practice was another way big tobacco was trying to bypass the clear intentions of the law.
“We know their product if used as intended has a very high percentage of killing the user and 50 per cent of people who smoke will die from smoking.”
Heart Foundation Victoria chief executive Diana Heggie called for Victoria to follow the lead of Queensland and the ACT, where price boards are banned and retailers are only allowed to verbally tell customers what products are available and how much they cost.
He said Victorians continued to be exposed to tobacco advertising in 145 specialist tobacconists.
But Russell Zimmerman, executive director of the Australian Retailers Association said further reforms would push small retailers out of business, and consumers would end up relying on Coles and Woolworths for their cigarettes.
“We must maintain competition within business. The regulations and rules placed on these people is ridiculous.”
A British American Tobacco spokesman hit back at the proposed reforms. “Claims that price boards do anything other than display prices are completely wrong. Price boards are in a plain black and white font and simply list prices for legal tobacco brands which are hidden from view behind steel doors.”
A spokesman for Health Minister David Davis said the state government would introduce evidence-based measures that are shown to further reduce smoking rates, and had taken dozens of such measures since coming to office.
“From April 1, the form of a price board can be prescribed, allowing the Government to respond to emerging methods that advertise tobacco products. Applications by specialist tobacconists for exemptions from the ban on tobacco product display will cease.”
