As an editor of radioinfo I try to listen to talk radio on a purely professional level and not get personally embroiled in the argument of the day. I must confess, though, that it is not always easy to resist. Talk radio, after all, is at its most compelling when it fires people up. And sometimes, on some topics it breaks through my defences and sucks me in. When this happens I usually switch to a music station or the classical selection on my iPod, take a deep breath and tell myself that it is only entertainment. I remind myself that as a an industry insider I live by the credo (with apologies to Voltaire), “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend unto death your right to do anything it takes to win rating points.” Besides, Media Watch does a perfectly adequate job of politically correcting the shock jocks’ errant ways. It doesn’t need me in its act.

No matter my personal feelings towards asylum seekers, mining tax, climate change or any of the hot buttons routinely pushed by talk presenters (apart from odd short lapses) I remain an impartial observer.

Yet, I can’t seem to reconcile talk radio’s stance in the debate about plain packaging of cigarettes. No matter how much classical music I listen to, I can’t acquiesce to the insidious campaign being aired by Big Tobacco and talk radio’s tacit support of it.

Disclaimer: I haven’t listened to every shift on every talk station in Australia on this matter. Although I fervently hope that some have voiced support for the proposed legislation to “un-brand” cigarettes from 2012, all of the ones I have listened to, mainly in Sydney are happy to join Big Tobacco in panning the government’s policy.

The recent saturation ad campaign for what purports to be a Small Retailers Alliance but is funded by Big Tobacco states that there is no real proof that plain packaging will work. Really? Then why would Big Tobacco spend millions on this campaign if they didn’t fear that plain packaging would do exactly what it is designed to do – reduce cigarette sales.

More importantly it will reduce the number of kids who take up smoking in the first place. I know, because I was one.

Like most, I started smoking in my mid teens. Almost every new smoker is in the 10 – 17 demographic. Almost nobody is stupid enough to start in their 20’s. I was 32 when I first realised that I needed to give up. It took the next decade to finally kick the habit. It was the hardest thing I ever did.

As a teenager, just like kids today, we were desperate to look like adults and were trying to develop a self image. The pre-packaged images promoted by Big Tobacco provided the perfect fashion accessory. Those of us who saw ourselves as upwardly mobile flashed B&H or Dunhill. Others related to the macho Marlboro Man (who has, incidently, since died of lung cancer). Practical types (some of whom later became radio techs) rolled their own Drum. 

Alpine was for girls, which is why boys wouldn’t smoke them. Such is the power of advertising.

The argument I’ve heard from some talk presenters goes along the lines of cigarettes are a legal product and people have right to smoke if they choose to. And both the cigarette companies and the retailers have a right to sell cigarettes and not have the government take away their profits. Sounds reasonable.

And if cigarette marketing and packaging was simply about getting established adult smokers to switch brands, which is all the  tobacco industry insists that it is doing, I wouldn’t be sitting here at 1:10 am writing this piece. But its not. Its about getting new customers. Like any other business, Big Tobacco’s lifeblood is new customers. And, in Australia, there’s really only one source of new recruits to smoking. Kids. Yours and mine. Kids need our protection.

Branded cigarette packaging is as important to teen smokers as having the right designer labels on T shirts and sneakers. The clever university trained adults in the marketing departments and ad agencies of Big Tobacco know this and exploit it. The kids don’t have a chance.

Lose the branding in favour of generic packaging and suddenly a large part of the attraction for kids to smoke disappears.

I realise that beating up on the Gillard government is a staple for any talk show host that calls themselves ‘conservative’. Fair enough too! Labor has provided plenty of poor policy to beat them up over and should be held to account. Yet, this issue, I believe, is too important to politicise.

Talk Radio has been a tireless campaigner on issues such as teen suicide, safe driving, binge drinking and protecting our kids from the spread of illegal drugs. The fact that tobacco is legal, doesn’t make it any less harmful (albeit with longer term effects). Few could argue against the proposition that smoking is the number one preventable contributor to a number of fatal diseases that take billions of our health care dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives prematurely each year.

I call upon the radio industry as a whole, and talk radio hosts in particular to oppose this disingenuous campaign from Big Tobacco masquerading as the so called Alliance of Australian Reatailers. Don’t let Big Tobacco con you and your listeners into helping them hook your kids on smoking. It has no socially redeemable factors.

Peter Saxon

Editor