Tobacco: Where There’s Smoke

When it comes to antismoking campaigns, the British government’s has been no more successful than the U.S.’s. Though it has not imposed U.S.-style health warnings on cigarette packs, the Labor government took the drastic step of outlawing all cigarette commercials on television, last year persuaded cigarette manufacturers to limit other advertising as well. Nonetheless, half of all British adults remain on cigarettes, and the past two years have seen a steady increase in consumption among young people. Confronted with a tax-heavy price of 75¢ a pack, Britons seem largely indifferent to the health scare, economically they continue to smoke their cigarettes down to the final finger-burning puff.

Dart Boards & Holidays. Last week the tobacco industry came in for fresh trouble. The government took disturbed note of the fact that manufacturers have more than matched the decrease in their advertising budgets with major expenditures—$84 million in 1966—on gift-coupon promotions. With coupon-bearing cigarettes now accounting for 55% of all sales, British smokers use the premiums to get everything from dart boards to Caribbean holidays and discount auto insurance. Rising in the House of Commons, Minister of Health Kenneth Robinson announced that the government would introduce legislation to abolish cigarette coupons, take additional steps “to control or ban” certain other promotional and advertising practices.

Two cigarette makers, Gallaher (leading brands: Senior Service and Kensitas) and Carreras (Guards and Rothmans), had already expressed their willingness to accept a coupon ban, even without legislation. Their cooperation was understandable, since their sales—especially of coupon brands—have lagged behind those of industry-leading Imperial Tobacco Co., whose two coupon brands, Player’s No. 6 and Embassy, have captured 43% of British cigarette sales. For its part, Imperial insisted that the coupon promotions, while successful in brand competition among those who already smoke, do little to lure nonsmokers to the fold. Chairman John Partridge warned that Imperial would cut its prices if the coupon ban goes through, added that cheaper smokes could “have the effect of increasing total cigarette consumption” far more than gift premiums were ever able to do.

Cashing In. Britons reacted to the news by hurriedly cashing in their coupons for gifts, many of them failing to realize that the contemplated legislation will probably take a year to go into effect. London newspapers were edgy about the possibility that the crackdown might include a ban on all cigarette advertising. Editorially, some papers began to inveigh against abuse of government control. Said the Daily Telegraph: “Freedom must include the right to take calculated risks even to life itself.”

More to the point, so far as the government was concerned, was the likelihood that the latest measures would do little to curb smoking. And since tobacco brings in $2.8 billion in annual tax revenues, there were suspicions that the government preferred it that way.