Irish women are being warned: Don’t fall for the tricks of days gone by.
Once upon a time in old Hollywood, smoking was the epitome of cool. Marilyn Monroe, Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn… They were all at it. Over the years it became normal to see characters in Corrie with a ciggie casually hanging from their mouths. When I was growing up, it was in films and in glossy advertisements in magazines. Was there anyone who wasn’t smoking?
Obviously as we all know, 2012 is a different kettle of fish. Stricter advertising, a better understanding of what smoking does to you, and having to shiver your bum off outside the pub on a freezing Friday night meant that the glamorous image that smoking once had was being slowly eroded.
Or is it? Kathleen O’Meara from the Irish Cancer Society said last week that the tobacco industry is working hard to target more women and girls to start smoking. Patterned boxes and slim cigarettes to appeal to womens aesthetics are being planned - and why?
Advertised
To associate smoking with glamour and slimness.
I understand that smoking is an addiction and sometimes (like with a big bar of Galaxy) it’s very hard to stop. But I’d like to think that we’re more informed and clued in now than to let an advertising company manipulate us in to buying something, just because it’s packaged prettily.
Would you ever fall for the charms of a floral printed box of John Player?
Sarah Whiteacre
