Australia: When industry offers cash and travel to tobacconists

In Australia, a study by the University of Sydney reveals the strategies used by tobacco companies to circumvent current regulations, particularly the general ban on tobacco advertising.

The study, published in the journal Global Public Health, shows that the tobacco industry is implementing financial incentives for retailers. In exchange, retailers promote their products directly to consumers or grant larger spaces to certain brands. While tobacco advertising is banned in Australia, tobacco companies have focused their promotional efforts on business-to-business relationship marketing.

Making the retailer a brand ambassador

To understand the extent of promotional strategies, the researchers conducted interviews with a sample of key informants who previously worked for the tobacco industry in sales or marketing positions. The survey results describe three forms of marketing strategies:

• The provision of financial incentives, ranging from promotional offers to cash payments;
• The provision of “experiential” incentives, including pre-paid vacations (Japan, Monaco, Hawaii, etc.), invitation to events (Football World Cup, Rugby World Cup, Formula 1 Grand Prix);
• Targeted marketing and information provision, allowing the tobacconist to become a true ambassador for particular tobacco brands.

Exploitation of a legal loophole

The primary goal of all these incentives is to boost tobacco sales, with a target-based approach. According to the researchers, these strategies contribute to undermining the effectiveness of tobacco control measures, such as the introduction of plain packaging, and contravene the principle of banning tobacco advertising. The study highlights the need for Australian governments to legislate on the subject to prohibit these practices. These results show that, to be effective, a ban on tobacco advertising must be total, to avoid the transfer phenomena observed here.

A recurring strategy

These practices are not a first for the tobacco industry, which had already distinguished itself with similar strategies in France in 2013. It had in fact been shown that the manufacturer British American Tobacco was building loyalty among tobacconists by sending gifts, as well as undeclared sums of money, thereby deliberately breaking the law in force. In 2015 and 2016, a similar situation was observed in Scotland after the ban on the display of tobacco products[2].

Keywords: Australia, study

©Generation Without Tobacco

[1] Big tobacco retailers giving cash and international trips to promote products, The Guardian, September 28, 2020, (accessed 02/10/2020)

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