Canadian Tobacco Firms Want Cigarettes Regulated Like Beer
The Canadian Supreme Court heard an appeal of the nation’s tough tobacco advertising law from leading tobacco companies this week, which called for cigarettes to be regulated more like beer, the Canadian Press reported Feb. 20.
The companies contend that the current Tobacco Act amounts to an unconstitutional ban on cigarette advertising; the law limits ads to adults-only public spaces, direct mail, and magazines with adult readership. Ads that appeal to kids are forbidden, and Big Tobacco claims that this section of the law is so vague that it effectively prevents them from advertising.
“To imagine an ad that can’t be construed to be appealing to someone who’s 17 years old, in my estimation, is impossible,” said industry lawyer Simon Potter. “The world ‘construed’ is entirely subjective ... If you ban everything except what is explicitly permitted, some care must be taken to actually be clear as to what’s permitted.”
Potter said that a process could be set up where government and industry representatives review ads before they are published, similar to the procedure for beer ads.
Representatives for six provincial attorneys general also appeared before the high court, all saying that the law should remain unchanged. “In order to achieve the purpose of the law, which is to create an effective counterweight to evolving marketing techniques, we have to take a wide approach,” said Dominique Jobin, a lawyer for the attorney general of Quebec.
