Tobacco display ban: beyond the easy parodies

Over the weekend the government announced that it was considering banning the open display of cigarettes for sale, as is commonly found in any tobacco shop, whether a local corner shop or a supermarket. This would apply not only to over-the-counter cigarettes but also vending machines.

Now, I think this is a really good idea, and I would go further: get rid of brands of cigarette altogether. Just have generic cigarettes or tobacco for rolling, with no flavourings, no vanilla or menthol or anything else (an alternative, which I heard suggested several years ago, is to give all the brands stupid names like "jerk"). Advertising of tobacco products was rightly banned several years ago, because what it does – raise awareness of the availability of tobacco – is harmful. The open display of branded packets of cigarettes and cigars are the last bastion of tobacco advertising.

The problem is that the justifications put forward were flimsy, and lent themselves to facile mocking by (probably among others) Vanessa Feltz yesterday morning, who poked fun at the suggestion that a child might just be walking past a vending machine with enough money to buy a packet of fags and, before you know it, that child would be hooked, and suggested that a ban on displaying sweets for sale might be next. This is, of course, typical of the stupid parody and reductio ad absurdam which is so common in the British media. Tobacco is not like sweets, because sweets are vastly less harmful to the person eating them (not at all, in fact, unless they eat nothing but sweets), do not release harmful, stinking smoke as they are eaten, and have at least some nutritional value.

This idea should be put forward for the very good reason that people with an interest in selling harmful products like tobacco should not be allowed to call people to buy them as if they were selling sweets or cleaning products, because the less aware people are of the products, the less likely they are to buy or use them – and so, the only time people do become aware of them, if they do not already smoke, is when they encounter the stink of tobacco smoke when someone blows it in their faces.