Australia's tobacco marketing laws give retailers a headache

James Yu, who runs the King of the Pack tobacconist in central Sydney, is indignant about Australia's stringent anti-tobacco laws making manufactures package cigarettes in drab olive green packs with pictures of ill babies and diseased body parts.

The packages, mandatory from Saturday when the laws take effect, make it hard to tell brands apart, complicating deliveries and adding to costs in his cramped, dark booth.

The legislation, the most Draconian in the world, strips packs of all branding, bright colors and logos, leaving only the name printed in identical small font.

"It used to take me an hour to unload a delivery, now it takes me four hours," Yu said, demonstrating how difficult it is to find the brand names.

"The government should have just banned them altogether and then we'd go ok, fine, we're done, we'll shut up shop," he said, throwing his hands up in the air.

Australia's plain packaging laws are a potential watershed for the global industry, which serves 1 billion regular smokers, according to World Health Organization statistics.

While Australia has one of the world's lowest smoking rates and the changes will have little impact on multinationals' profits, other countries are considering similar steps.

The government says the aim is to deter young people from smoking by stripping the habit of glamour. It is relying on studies showing that if people have not started smoking by age 26, there is a 99 percent chance they will never take it up.

"Even from a very early age, you can see that kids understand the message that the tobacco company is trying to sell through their branding," Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek told Reuters, citing studies that showed children made linkages such as crown logos and princesses.

The potential hitch, experts say, is the popularity of social media with the very demographic the plan is targeting.

After a series of Australian laws banning TV advertising and sports sponsorship and requiring most sellers to hide cigarettes from view, online is the final frontier for tobacco marketing.

Australia has banned online advertising by local companies and sites, but the door cannot be slammed at the border.

"If you are a tobacco marketer and you've only got this small window left to promote your products, online is the compelling place for you to be in," said Becky Freeman, a public health researcher at Sydney University.

Freeman noted an increase in "average Joe" reviews of brands on social media sites such as Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.

"We have to ask, is that just a private citizen who really loves Marlboro cigarettes and they've gone to the trouble of making a video, or is there a marketing company involved?"