In an episode of the television show Mad Men, Don Draper, the creative director of advertising agency Sterling Cooper, declares that tobacco is “the greatest advertising opportunity since the invention of cereal”.

The mad men of the tobacco industry have long used packaging to undermine health warnings; to engage in false and misleading advertising; and to encourage consumers to initiate and maintain the use of its addictive products.

Recent subversive tobacco packaging in the United Kingdom attests to this:

Packaging trying to undermine public health messages about smoking Matthew Rimmer

The World Health Organization (WHO) considers “tobacco use as one of the greatest threats to public health the world has ever faced” and its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) – subscribed to by 174 countries – is an evidence-based treaty designed to address the epidemic of tobacco-related illnesses.

The framework addresses measures to control the use of packaging, labelling, advertising, promotion and sponsorship aimed at encouraging consumption of tobacco products.

And the recently released WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2011 emphasizes that the combination of health warnings and plain packaging are best practice for tobacco control.

The Australian Government – led by the Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon – has introduced the Tobacco Plain Packaging Bill 2011 (Cth) and the Trade Marks Amendment (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Bill 2011 (Cth) as an effective means of implementing its obligations under the FCTC.