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Fashion & Cigarettes Don't Mix
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| Smoking gun... Free promotional boxes of cigarettes on tables. |
Art & Fashion
Australian Fashion Week 07
A FASHION industry party at which patrons were given packets of free cigarettes and encouraged to smoke is being investigated by the Health Department.
Guests at the swanky Fashion TV Red Ribbon Foundation party at the Sydney Opera House forecourt marquee on Thursday night were given "complimentary" packets of Davidoff cigarettes by scantily dressed promotional girls.
Is associating smoking with glamorous fashion events setting a bad example? Tell us in the Feedback section at the bottom of this story.
The preview party to Australian Fashion Week was branded a "disgrace" by anti-smoking campaigners, who accused the fashion industry of
glamorizing a deadly habit.
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| Erin McNaught attends the Fashion TV and Red Ribbon charity gala at the Sydney Opera House. |
"It's a disgraceful state of affairs when free cigarettes are given out at any event," Australian Medical Association president Mukesh Haikerwal said.
"There are people in the fashion industry who are very skinny and smoking sends the message that you need to smoke to be thin. It's a very bad message," Dr Haikerwal said.
"Smoking is the No. 1 cause of preventable deaths in this country and this sets an appalling example – for young women in particular."
The Health Department yesterday confirmed it would investigate the tobacco promotion, which could have breached the Public Health Act.
Under the Act, promoting a tobacco product by giving away free samples is an offence. The penalty ranges from a $5500 to $20,000 fine.
A preferred brand of the glamour set overseas, Davidoff cigarettes are made in Germany by the Imperial Tobacco Group.
Davidoff brand manager Greg Moses said the promotion was the first for the brand in Australia, which has been selling the label locally for three years.
The opportunity to "sell" their cigarettes at the Fashion TV AIDS fundraiser had "just come up", Mr Moses said, but declined to comment on whether Davidoff had plans to conduct similar promotions during Australian Fashion Week.
An event organizer said the cigarettes were provided free to party guests through an association with Belvedere Vodka, which set up a bar at the event.
"They teamed up with Belvedere to do their sampling to get around the fact you can't do advertising or promote smoking," the source said.
"(The tobacco industry) does a lot of big celebrity events that way. - The Art
News Network - The Daily Telegraph
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| Kathryn Eisman and Tali Shine pose at the gala event. |
Girlband members Renee Bargh and Renee Amstrong at the event. |
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