UK: Ban Campaign Mobilises

At last week’s Labour Party conference Mr Frank Dobson, UK secretary of state for health, promised party delegates that “we’ll ban tobacco advertising”. Meanwhile the British-based advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO has started working on behalf of the anti-smoking lobbying group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) to study the loopholes that might emerge in any future tobacco marketing and advertising bans. The drive towards a full, legislatively-enforced advertising ban continues apace in the UK, where the government ministers involved are preparing a White Paper (the draft of legislation proposing the ban) for the next parliamentary session. It is widely believed that the British government plans to spearhead a move to introduce proposals for a total EU-wide advertising ban at the December Health Council in Luxembourg.