Social media will be flooded with messages Wednesday urging the federal government to follow through with legislation to take away the tobacco industry's last form of advertising -- on cigarette packages.
The Middlesex-London Health Unit and youth advocacy group One Life One You are encouraging people to sign up for the "Plain. Simple. Standard." campaign through the social media platform, Thunderclap. The campaign is meant to keep policy makers in Ottawa on track to implement legislation that would see plain and standardized tobacco product packaging in the country.
At noon, Thunderclap will simultaneously send the same message through the Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr accounts of all of those who have signed up. The message will read "I'm not okay with 100 Canadians dying each day just so Big Tobacco can fill their pockets with $$$ #WNTD17 #FTIPSP."
“With most forms of tobacco advertising already banned in Canada, tobacco packages have become flashy, mini-billboards designed to build customer loyalty, while reducing the visibility and impact of graphic health warnings,” said Linda Stobo, tobacco control and chronic disease prevention manager at the Middlesex-London Health Unit. “Plain and standardized packaging means all packs, regardless of brand, would be the same colour, with brand names included on the pack in a standardized font; leaving the graphic health warning as the only feature of the package.”
The proposed legislation also prohibits smaller specialty cigarette packs marketed primarily to women.
Health unit officials point to research that shows plain packaging discourages young people from starting to smoke, decreases the amount of cigarettes smoked by addicts, and promotes attempts to quit.
However, tobacco companies maintain removing the branding from packaging will lead to an increase in contraband cigarette sales. They say consumers, retailers, and law enforcement would no longer be able to tell the difference between legal and illegal tobacco products.
The federal government has been formally considering the strict packaging regulation for over a year. A three month public consultation on the matter was launched on May 31, 2016. Since then, the proposed plain packaging legislation, also known as Bill S-5, passed second reading in the Senate and was the subject of a Senate committee study.
If the bill is passed by the House of Commons, Canada would join France, Australia, and the United Kingdom in forcing tobacco companies to use plain packaging.
The social media blast is being coordinated by Freeze the Industry, a network of Ontario youth activists standing against the tobacco industry. The group's social media blast coincides with World No Tobacco Day.
