Tobacco firms getting around restrictions to target women
Wellington – Tobacco companies are using at least eight ways to persuade women to smoke cigarettes, 10 years after a law 
restricting advertising was introduced, a group of New Zealand researchers said Friday.
The Health Ministry said that while only 1-in-5 adult New Zealanders smokes, half of all indigenous Maori women use cigarettes regularly with negative impacts on children, including infant mortality, premature births, low birth weights, asthma and sudden infant death syndrome.
Researchers from the University of Otago and Whakauae Research for Mori Health and Development released their study ahead of Monday’s World Smokefree Day.
They said tobacco companies used female-oriented cigarette brand names such as Cameo Mild, Vogue Bleue and Topaz and packaging and colours designed to appeal to women.
Foreign fashion magazines contained cigarette advertising directed at women and girls, showing women smoking brands available in New Zealand and continued to use deceptive terms such as “light” and “mild” in online advertisements contrary to a ruling by the watchdog Commerce Commission in 2008, their study found.
The researchers said the use of words like “subtle” and “mellow” to describe brands formerly called “light” in New Zealand and menthol cigarettes were aimed at female smokers who may delay quitting because they believed they were less harmful.
Dr Heather Gifford from the Whakauae group called for tighter marketing controls pending a phase-out of all tobacco sales in 10 years.
