Tobacco firm all of a sudden drops New York Dolls tour

LEGENDARY rock’n'roll band the New York Dolls have cancelled their Australian tour after their plans to play a series of tobacco industry promotional events were exposed.

The band’s October tour itinerary, posted on its website, included shows in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney for cigarette brand Peter Stuyvesant, owned by Imperial Tobacco, along with dates at New York-themed festival the Boroughs.

New York Dolls tour

But the entire Australian tour has been cancelled and the Boroughs website deleted after news of the tobacco gigs was posted on music website Mess & Noise on Monday.

Trade events, where tobacco companies ply retailers and nightclub operators with free alcohol and entertainment, are one of the few promotional tools left to the industry.

Professor of public health at the University of Sydney Simon Chapman said Imperial Tobacco’s actions suggested they were ramping up their promotional efforts before plain-packaging legislation to be introduced today and likely to have taken effect by January.

”I’ve never heard of them bringing international acts out. I’ve heard of them using local acts, though, so it suggests they are getting cheekier,” he said.

Tobacco companies will face fines of up to $1 million for breaching the government’s plain-pack legislation. Tobacco companies are formulating various legal challenges.

The new Australian packaging will remove logos, colours and promotional text from packets that will be coloured a uniform drab green-brown, chosen for having the lowest appeal to smokers. Packaging will include larger health warning images. Brand names will be in a small standard font.

Imperial Tobacco spokeswoman Cathie Keogh initially denied the company had entered negotiations with the New York Dolls or had any trade events planned for October.

However, she later confirmed that October trade shows were being considered and that an unnamed agency had ”commenced discussions with potential service providers including New York Dolls, for involvement in Peter Stuyvesant trade events”.

No one else involved in the aborted tour would speak to The Age and details of the companies involved have been scrubbed from the internet.

The touring company behind the Boroughs festival, Killrockstar Big Dog Entertainment, has deleted its website and Steve Wools and Josh Lefers of associated branding agency Big Dog did not return emails or phone calls.
The New York Dolls’ London-based agent, Ian Fintak, of The Agency Group, did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Smoker or Nonsmoker?

Is Matt Damon a smoker
I asked a question about Matt Damon: Smoking cigarettes not only leads to asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer, and other health issues, it also stains your teeth, causes wrinkles, and gives you bad breath. Can you tell I am not a fan of the habit? It is a stereotype that actors smoke, but some have wised up and quit. Take this quiz and see if you know who still smokes and who has given it up.

Question 1 of 8
Matt Damon
Your Answer:
Nonsmoker
Correct!
Matt Damon smoked for two decades and used hypnosis therapy to quit.

Celebrity Smokers


Thousands of articles have already been written about the health risks ofsmoking. Yet, many celebrities continue to ignore the inscriptions on the boxes which clearly state that smoking harms our health. Some of them even talk about leading healthy lifestyle while secretly smoking in real life. Below are the names of the most hard-core Hollywood smokers.

Hard-core Celebrity Smokers

Kate Moss smokes one pack every day, in contrast to the fact that she wears anti-nicotine patch! Colin Farrell is rarely seen on a photograph without a cigarette in his hand or mouth. Kirsten Dunst and Lindsay Lohan can not part with a pack of Marlboro even in a rehabilitation clinic! Gillian Anderson started smoking when she was 14. For the last seven years the whole America watches as Gillian quits smoking, then goes back to being a smoker, then quits once again, and so on.
Lindsay Lohan smoking

Britney Spears “Advertises” Marlboro

Britney Spears once said in 2001 that she hated smokers. Indeed, time changes people since Britney has parted with her innocent image and no longer hides her cigarettes, but rather is a walking advertisement for Marlboro Lights.
Britney Spears Smoking

Smoking Celebrities and Diseases

Patrick Swayze smokes a lot, despite being very sick (he has pancreas cancer). Charlize Theron never parts with her cigarettes at all. Ironically, she has chronic bronchitis. Group of celebrities who share this condition with Charlize includes such people as Mickey Rourke, Sean Penn, the late Heath Ledger, Jack Nicholson, and Robbie Williams.
Patrick Swayze Smoking

Smoking as Part of the Style

Furthermore, some stars have to be “the bad guys” simply on the grounds of duty. Snoop Dogg and Amy Winehouse make prominent examples. Furthermore, the list can be easily extended!
Amy Winehouse Smoking

Catherine Zeta-Jones Smoked During Pregnancy

At the same time, there are celebrities who simply refuse to admit this habit to the public. Catherine Zeta-Jones is one of them. She kept on smoking while being pregnant. Ubiquitous paparazzi dug out some photos on which Mrs. Douglas enjoys her cigarette on the balcony of her mansion. At that time Zeta-Jones was in her sixth month of pregnancy. There was a huge scandal over those photos in media, but actress chose not to make comments.
Catherine Zeta-Jones Smoke During Pregnancy

Smoking Spice Girls

Emma Bunton was “caught” at some restaurant with a cigarette while being portrayed as “Baby-spice” in the Spice Girls. Those photos rushed across the whole planet. Yet, Bunton was daring enough to sue, claiming that paparazzi were ruining her “baby-spice” image. In response, the media told the singer to either quit smoking or stop lying in her interviews.
Emma Bunton - Smoker
Victoria Beckham, who is currently a perfect wife and mother of three, used to smoke early in her career. She no longer smokes now, or at least she claims so.
In contrast, another Spice Girls member, Melanie Brown, recently started smoking and is not ashamed of it at all.
Melanie Brown Smoking
As you can see, many celebrities suffer from this bad habit. Some of them keep on smoking even when they are very sick or pregnant. Because of this, they often look worn-out, age faster, and get sick even more often. Don’t follow their lead and to try to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
In the past few years, it has become some sort of a fad for celebrities with a drug problem to seek substance abuse treatment , but some do not come out of it totally rehabilitated, as they jump right into their old lifestyle the minute they step out of the treatment facility. Wonder how many are paying loads to try to beat smoking addiction with no luck either?

Smoking Doesn’t Keep You Slim

You might think that you will gain weight if you quit smoking. But it’s not that simple. A master’s thesis from NHV shows that smoking Parliament cigarettes doesn’t help you get thinner. While cigarette smoking has decreased in western countries, obesity has increased. Recent studies have suggested that today’s smokers may have less weight problems than non-smokers.
“That’s why I wanted to study whether the relationship between smoking and overweight has changed over time”, said Lisa Webb, Master of Public Health at NHV.
Approximately 6,000 people have participated in a study on the relationship between smoking and obesity. Two measure of body fat have been used: BMI (body mass index) and WHR (waist hip ratio). The master’s thesis “Smoking in the age of obesity: an investigation of secular trends in body fat and cigarette smoking” shows higher WHR for male and female smokers but lower BMI for female smokers, as compared with non-smokers.
A particularly noteworthy finding was that the difference between WHR among female smokers and never-smokers increased during the study.