While we think of ourselves as independent, Dixon says sometimes we need to be told what to do.
Is there a dumber, more patronising and simply silly advertisement on television at the moment than the “No Nanny State” ad? You know, the one that uses the rather severe-looking woman with the unflattering hair and makeup to campaign against a proposal to require cigarettes to be sold in plain packages.
The campaign website is really no better than the TV ad, but it does explain its argument a bit more. I wouldn’t say better, just more.
While it’s ostensibly ridiculous, it just might do what it set out to do. It exists to marshal the ranks of smokers among us – and, I suppose, those who are wary of our civil liberties being ridden roughshod over – to mount a campaign against what they see as government legislation gone bonkers. Here’s the message you can send to your MP via the website:
I’m an adult and I say NO to Plain Packaging Legislation. While many rules are necessary in a modern functioning society, there’s a limit. The proposed Plain Packaging Legislation is quite simply regulation gone too far. As an adult, I can make my own decisions. I strongly urge you not to make Australia a Nanny State and ask that you represent my views to parliament.
Perhaps you see what I mean. It’s difficult to divine a thread of logic through those few lines. Each of them in isolation is sensible and emotive; but what’s the link between regulation gone too far and being able to make one’s own decisions?
The legislation won’t stop cigarettes being sold, so you still have the right to choose to smoke, or not. The legislation won’t stop different brands of cigarettes from being sold, so you can still choose the brand you wish to smoke. Exactly what decision are they taking away from us?
In addition, the tobacco companies say the move will “only fuel the illegal tobacco trade”. Their argument is that a dull, green box is easier to counterfeit than a pretty box. I’m guessing tobacco company executives have never picked up a knock-off CD or DVD or Ken Done print on holiday (well, maybe not a Ken Done print; I mean, there’s a limit, right?).
Pretty boxes and bright colours seem to be no impediment at all to counterfeiting.
Perhaps the tobacco companies are worried that the counterfeit product might be inferior to the legal version, and hence undermine the value of their brands? It might be inferior, I suppose, but in what way? Taste? If smokers had refined palates before they took up the habit, they probably haven’t so much by now. Health effects? If you’re really worried that an illegal product might be worse for your health than the legal version then – and I mean this with all due respect – you are actually a moron.
I have no idea how many letters MPs have received from adult smokers who can make up their own minds about everything, but who have nevertheless done exactly what an advertisement told them. I have no idea how many people have used the pro forma letter to prove just how capa- ble they are of thinking for themselves.
But I bet they’ve received more letters from smokers than from the consumers of financial planning services who think that opt in, for example, is a bad idea.
The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has put together a kit to help advisers to understand and explain the key FoFA elements, and to encourage them to have clients contact their local MPs to tell them what bits of FoFA they object to.
But what have planners and advisers done about it? Not much, if a show of hands at a recent AFA lunch is a guide. And so what is the Government hearing from the coalface of financial planning? Not much, that’s what. And certainly not the avalanche of opposition – from planners and clients – that might make them sit up and take notice.
Back to smoking. I think we can agree it’s a self-destructive activity; most smokers I know wish they could give it away without feeling like complete crap.
They’ll continue to smoke, whether cigarettes are sold in 24-carat gold boxes or tied together with pieces of string.
They’ve continued to smoke even though every time they pull out the pack they’re confronted with a picture of a diseased eyeball or a gangrenous foot or a lung ravaged by cancer.
If you’re enough of an independent thinker to ignore those messages, then chances are you’re probably immune enough to the Nanny State already – and a drab, olive-green box ain’t gonna stop you.
Dixon only smokes when he’s really, really drunk. You can contact him, but only if the decision is your own, via Professional PlannerHUB: www.professionalplanner.com.au/hub
