Wednesday 12 December 2012

You really didn't see this coming?




06:41am December 12, 2012

Goldcoast.com.au reports the following:

Company's answer to plain packaging laws

A GOLD Coast company has done what the tobacco industry could not -- cover up the confronting images on new plain-packaged cigarettes.

Box Wraps, based at Yatala, will today unveil a range of designs for a purpose-built sticker that wraps around cigarette packets in seconds.

You'd have to be simple not to have predicted this (Simon Chapman said it would never happen, natch). Plain packaging was always going to create commercial opportunities for those who make covers, stickers and cigarette cases. The only thing more predictable than this industry emerging is what the nanny state's response would be—and it took them less than 12 hours...


05:17pm December 12, 2012

Brisbane Times reports the following...


AMA wants stickers back in their box

The Australian Medical Association has urged the federal government to ban stickers being sold to wrap around cigarette packets to sidestep tobacco plain packaging laws.

These people really only have one tune, don't they? Good luck banning stickers, guys.

The company's website, which sells the stickers on a subscription basis from $1.75, crashed under the demand this morning.

Chortle!

8 comments:

V said...

"Simon Chapman said it would never happen, natch" - I see why the man's against gambling. He gets it wrong every time. Plain packs will mean shorter transaction times in shops, no one will use cigarette cases/stickers, people will stop smoking because of plain packs, etc etc etc. May as well put bets against everything he says will happen and bets on anything he says won't.

Jonathan Bagley said...

This will be fun.

Anonymous said...

Over on Franks Blog he ran a few pages and designs himself to cover up the bullshit! We were discussing then who might comercialize the effort...........Oh isnt capitalism grand..........lmao!

nisakiman said...

Arf! It was, as you point out Chris, so utterly predictable as to be a complete no-brainer. Drafting laws to cover that one is going to be a nightmare in hell if they attempt it. So many variables.

As Harley says: "Isn't capitalism grand!"

I've been having a good guffaw about this one. I'd love to be a fly on the wall at the meetings they must be having to discuss this latest act of rebellion.

"The company's website, which sells the stickers on a subscription basis from $1.75, crashed under the demand this morning."

Priceless!

Unknown said...

I'm stocking up on gaffer tape before that gets banned as well. Not only can it cover up labels, it's dead handy for gagging hostages, so obviously a hazard to life and limb.

Dr Evil said...

LMFAO!!! What did they expect? The tobac comps better get printing fast. All those shopkeeps are going to be very busy slapping stickers on. I just hope that Aust Black Russian Stickers at £8 equivalent aren't going to be stuck on packs of Value packs at Oz equivalent to £5!! :-)

Gordon the Fence Post Tortoise said...

@Steve Wintersgill

you josh... I recently had 50cm of electrical tape (20mm wide vinyl) confiscated by Bristol Airport scoority which apparently could have been used to restrain somebody...

Michael J. McFadden said...

Neither the Gold Coast nor the Brisbane Times seemed to care for the following:

===

The most important next step in this campaign is to make markers (pens, inks etc) illegal to prevent sneaky smokers from trying to obliterate pack warnings or drawing funny moustaches on the corpse pictures. And some smokers will try to hide the bad images by carrying their cigarettes in their pockets or pocketbooks. Pants do not need pockets. They function quite well without them. And pocketbooks are dangerous anyway: you never know if there might be a gun or a bomb or something hidden in them. Ban them all!

Hopefully this packet-picture advance in Consumer Education will expand soon to other areas. Covering all meat products with large color close-ups of diseased and bloodily tortured animal carcasses will help to reduce unhealthy and fattening meat consumption while reducing our carbon footprint. Pictures of grossly corpulent fatsos covered in bedsores will reduce children's desires for candy and sweets and save them from a lifetime of addiction to sugar, chocolate, and related drugs.

As for alcohol, beer brands can be noted with a small 3 digit code on the bottoms of bottles. The rest of the bottle surfaces can sport portraits of battered wives, dismembered auto-crash corpses, fatty livers, and esophageal cancers.

We can go a long way toward a better world now that the Antismokers have shown us the True Path.

- MJM