Personal responsibility instead of a ban on advertising
Lesch + Freis's social responsibility campaign for cigarettes aims to highlight BAT's perspective and soften opposing positions.
Cigarettes Lesch + Frei's social responsibility campaign aims to highlight the BAT's point of view and soften dividing lines Switzerland is one of the countries with the highest per capita consumption of tobacco products. There are many attempts to change this. But as long as tobacco prices in Switzerland remain the cheapest in Europe in terms of purchasing power, little is likely to change.but when even non-smoking advertisers' heads are spinning, it's most likely about the threat of advertising bans. Not so with Zurich agency Lesch + Frei (L+F). Since February 2000, it has been designing an opinion campaign for the German market on behalf of the cigarette group BAT (British American Tobacco) (Lucky Strike, Barclay, Parisienne and others), which aims to objectify the emotionally charged debate. Whether it was able to soften the hardened fronts is doubtful. After all, the blue haze in Germany has dissipated noticeably - by exactly one fifth. This is the extent of the slump in cigarette sales so far this year. Around 380 million cigarettes go up in smoke every day in our northern neighbor, a good 4 percent less than a decade ago.
Ernst Brückner, Managing Director of the German Cigarette Industry Association, fears that the decline for the year as a whole will be close to 20 percent compared to 2003. The negative trend appears to be accelerating. Although L+F proudly points to the success of the conciliatory BAT campaign and announces that it has been adapted in Spain, Serbia and Italy, it is not this campaign that has caused German cigarette sales to slide, but the increase in tobacco tax. For Brückner, it is clear that it is not the number of quitters that has increased, but the trade in substitute products such as smuggled goods and fine cigarettes. To prove this, the industry association wants to use waste controls to determine actual tobacco consumption and compare this with cigarette sales.
Switzerland has not yet reached that stage. A few months after the Federal Council, following the German example, decided to massively increase the tobacco tax, L+F's BAT campaign is now also intended to put people's minds at ease here in Switzerland. According to L+F Managing Director Walter Tagliaferri, the campaign addresses topics such as tolerance, youth prevention and advertising bans and shows that BAT is facing up to its responsibilities with a whole range of measures. The creatives have translated the sensitive content into nine subjects in order to make the discussion more objective. In view of the planned budget, this request seems a little too ambitious. In 2002, advertising expenditure for tobacco products amounted to 59.3 million francs.
BAT advertising subject: The tobacco debate should finally become objective.
Luca Aloisi
Ernst Brückner, Managing Director of the German Cigarette Industry Association, fears that the decline for the year as a whole will be close to 20 percent compared to 2003. The negative trend appears to be accelerating. Although L+F proudly points to the success of the conciliatory BAT campaign and announces that it has been adapted in Spain, Serbia and Italy, it is not this campaign that has caused German cigarette sales to slide, but the increase in tobacco tax. For Brückner, it is clear that it is not the number of quitters that has increased, but the trade in substitute products such as smuggled goods and fine cigarettes. To prove this, the industry association wants to use waste controls to determine actual tobacco consumption and compare this with cigarette sales.
Switzerland has not yet reached that stage. A few months after the Federal Council, following the German example, decided to massively increase the tobacco tax, L+F's BAT campaign is now also intended to put people's minds at ease here in Switzerland. According to L+F Managing Director Walter Tagliaferri, the campaign addresses topics such as tolerance, youth prevention and advertising bans and shows that BAT is facing up to its responsibilities with a whole range of measures. The creatives have translated the sensitive content into nine subjects in order to make the discussion more objective. In view of the planned budget, this request seems a little too ambitious. In 2002, advertising expenditure for tobacco products amounted to 59.3 million francs.
BAT advertising subject: The tobacco debate should finally become objective.
Luca Aloisi
