Letter: Smokes or sweets

I have never smoked, but what troubles me about Cancer Research UK’s (CRUK) campaign for plain cigarette packaging (your report, 14 May) is its near hysterical use of false argumentation.

Describing tobacco as being marketed to children like sweets is farcical: nowhere are cigarettes displayed in the same way, and there is no evidence of tobacco being targeted at children. There is no advertising.

CRUK quotes a survey showing 86 per cent of adults thought branding was important to children under 18, yet the CRUK’s own research among teenagers revealed little awareness of differing packet styles, with most packs displayed being seen for the first time and considered peripheral to the actual cigarettes.

CRUK’s film on the subject has a small boy say: “The pictures actually look quite nice. Ice cubes and mint.”

It’s a Herculean leap from that to fancying a cigarette, as claimed by CRUK.

The campaign is, after all, about preventing children from actually starting to smoke. With years of experience of this age group, I can’t believe none mentioned the stark SMOKING KILLS on all the packets.

Did they know what was inside them?

Robert Dow

Ormiston Road

Tranent, East Lothian