[jtblin]

Too bad they don't do that with alcohol... There's advertising for alcohol everywhere, often associated with sports club which is especially bad for young people. People drink everywhere even at the beach. There's a real alcohol problem here and it's a shame they don't spend as much energy fighting it because in the grand scheme of things, it's even worse than tobacco.

[wycx]

I would rather see an end to sports betting advertising before alcohol. At least the alcohol advertising is not integrated into sports tv coverage.

[exodust]

What do you mean "not integrated"? Alcohol advertising is present in the most popular sport in Australia, AFL football.

[wycx]

I can't say anything about Channel 7, but during the Foxtel coverage, during every pre-match, and Friday and Saturday post-matches they have to cross to a man from the betting company to give them the odds for other games in the round etc. I don't see them cross to someone from CUB or Lion Nathan to give the beer update.

[gkya]

Well it's arguable that alcoholism has way less direct bad effects on public than smoking. There's nothing like passive alcoholism.

[collyw]

It may be a nuisance but passive smoking has negligible effects on public health.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2013/12/12/study-fi...

[ufo]

Alcoholism is actually one of the drugs that scores the highest on the "harm to others" category, due to things like drunk driving

[lixquid]

Tell that to the drunk car crash victim, or the overloaded EMT at closing time.

[village-idiot]

I agree with you that alcohol abuse is a problem, but it does seem to me like a different take would be required to reduce binge drinking.

Two things stand out:

1) Alcohol branding and brand identification is extremely common and deep seeded in the West. It'd be a very hard cultural sell to drop alcohol branding.

2) A lot of alcohol is consumed in bar specific pints, not the packaging it's sold in.

[willemmali]

Off topic, but "deep seeded" is a pretty great eggcorn (word/phrase that sounds like another word/phrase, is quite different but still approximates the meaning of the original).

It's like "deep seated" with a reproductive twist.

[KON_Air]

Of all the ways that don't work is trying to make people quit something by increasing taxes. Guess that's a win for Indonesian smugglers.

[tomhoward]

It works.

Specifically, it works because the taxes make it too expensive for teenagers to become regular smokers. That's the most important time to limit tobacco consumption, as we all know.

Research indicates smoking among teenagers has declined by about 65-70% in the 15 years to 2014 [1].

But even regular smokers I know who are well into their 30s are cutting down, switching to e-cigs or quitting, due to the cost. Yes it's for health reasons too, but the cost factor is adding urgency.

http://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-1-prevalence/1-...