Forgotten Australia

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So this Father's Day, why not give him a meaningful gift that'll keep on giving? From August the 24th to the 6th of September, AncestryDNA is available at the special Father's Day price of just $59.00. 01:17 So this Father's Day, give Dad the gift of discovery. You've got questions, we've got ancestors. 01:25 Forgotten Australia is written and produced by me, Michael Adams, without the use of AI, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, on land traditionally owned by the Darug and Gundungara people. 01:36 I pay my respects to Aboriginal elders, past and present. 01:40 This two-part podcast episode contains a lot of discussion about cigarettes and smoking. Listener discretion is advised. It's 11.58pm, Tuesday 31 August 1976, and Australian night owls are about to witness the end of an era. Some remember how this era started, almost 20 years ago to the day. 02:11 Back then, 100,000 people were watching. They were in their lounge rooms, but more were in electrical stores or standing outside them because TVs cost up to six times the average wage. 02:25 On the evening of the 16th of September 1956, TCN in Sydney began broadcasting. The era of television, commercial television, had started in Australia. 02:37 Channel 9 executive Bruce Gingell said his bit. 02:41 Good evening and welcome to television. 02:43 Then came the first program called This Is Television, an introduction to the new medium. Coming up, there'd be American shows I Love Lucy and The Paddy Page Show. But first, the first commercial for Rothmans. 02:59 In the 20 years since, there have been thousands and thousands of Australian cigarette commercials for the various brands. Lots of famous faces too. Paul Hogan, Graham Kennedy and even Norman Bloody Gunston. Alpine and Camel Girls, Cravenay and Ardeth guys. Of course, Marlboro men. 03:20 All to keep Aussies smoking and to get them started. 03:24 Tonight, the commercials stop. In two minutes at midnight, the cigarette advertising ban on television comes into effect. 03:33 Rothmans had the first word, and now, before they're stubbed out, going to the dirty ashtray of history, Benson and Hedges will have the last gasp. 03:43 Amazingly enough, the tobacco executive responsible booked this spot, the last ad, in the last time, on the last day, all the way back in 1968. 03:55 They knew then a ban would come, just like they knew then that their cigarettes killed many of their customers. Now, at 2 minutes to 12, Stuart Wagstaff graces screens one last time for B&H. 04:09 In this ad, he's out of petrol, just the latest in the series of adventures the smoothie has had to solve with the help of the brand over more than 100 separate commercials. 04:22 To win the day in this scenario involves betting a carton of B&H. Suave old Stewart is caught in one of those double or nothing dilemmas. 04:32 But the tobacco industry is about to double down. 04:36 That's because, despite the ban, it'll actually be another 20 years before their brands leave our screens. 04:59 I'm Michael Adams, and this is part one of the two-part Forgotten Australia episode, The Last Gasp, stubbing out Ziggy commercials. 05:11 If you're around my age, there's a good chance when you hear that music, your mind goes not to Tchaikovsky, but to Paul Hogan, and from there, to Winfields, and the word Anyhow. 05:24 An arrangement of this section of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony's second movement was the theme for the Paul Hogan show from 1973 onwards. 05:34 But that came after it was the theme music for his Winfield commercials, as he launched the brand on its trajectory to become the most popular cigarette in Australia during peak smoking. 05:50 50 years ago this week, the Australian government seemingly struck a blow for the health of Australians by banning tobacco advertising on television and on radio. 06:00 It was a bipartisan effort across successive governments. 06:05 Prime Ministers John Gorton and Billy McMahon got the ball rolling modestly. Gough Whitlam ran with it, and Malcolm Fraser carried it over the line. 06:16 While it was better late than never, it also came so slowly that the tobacco companies had plenty of time to settle into new strategies. 06:25 While the ban was a battle won, the companies were to take back ground, open up new fronts, and conquer new territory. 06:34 The spoils? 06:36 Millions on the way to billions in revenues and profits for the players involved. Multinational tobacco companies, local media moguls with dreams of being as big, and of course the federal government, which banned on one hand and grabbed excisors and grew tobacco with the other. 06:56 Are there parallels with issues that are testing politicians of all parties right now, such as gambling ads, illegal tobacco, social media, climate change, AI? 07:09 I'll leave that to you. 07:11 Making this episode, it was interesting to see that newspaper commentators in the 1970s when writing about this issue sometimes disclosed whether they were smokers or non-smokers in order that readers wouldn't think they were blindly defending or attacking the tobacco advertising industry based on their own preferences. 07:32 Maybe it's a good idea, given it's such an emotive issue. So, I'm 56. Like many Generation Xs, I'm a former regular smoker. Rusted on for about 15 years, casual for another 15, very occasionally since, not at all for about a year. 07:51 I consider myself a non-smoker. Others might disagree. 07:55 Like many who mostly abstain, apart from that cheeky-siggy now and again, I love the idea of smoking. It's a nostalgic lament common to clowns just like me. 08:08 This episode is fundamentally about that – The idea of smoking. How it was created and maintained in Australia in the second half of the 20th century. 08:19 I don't blame anyone but me for me smoking. 08:22 Not tobacco companies. Not tobacco commercials and advertising. Not celebrity spokespeople. Not the movies. Not the politicians. Not my parents. Not peer pressure. I chose to smoke. But why did I choose it? 08:38 Each of the factors I just listed played some part. That's about as much as I can say. 08:44 It's likely also just a matter of individual psychology, circumstance, possibly even genetics. 08:52 Anyhow, manipulative marketing was a factor for me and millions of others. 08:58 The strongest support for this suggestion is simply the vast sum spent on cigarette commercials and brand advertising and sponsorships and how bitterly companies fought any change. 09:10 These commercials, the personalities and scenarios, music and taglines are like cigarette burns in the cultural memory. They're not really possible to repair. 09:22 I was only exposed for the first six years of my life, but in that time I would have seen hundreds, more likely thousands of cigarette commercials. 09:32 If I'd been born 20 years earlier, that number would have been tens or even hundreds of thousands. 09:39 There's a certain hazy nostalgia to cigarette commercials. 09:44 That is by design. They made us feel then, they make us feel now, even if just in memory. But in this episode, we're going to look at some of the realities behind them. It's a story starring our most famous TV personalities, but they were only ever the front men, celebrities whose parallel entertainment careers were covered closely. 10:06 How what they did paid off for the tobacco paymasters wasn't found in such articles. This crucial element is found in the somewhat dry business pages of the Australian broadsheet newspapers. 10:19 It's dull stuff. Figures. We're talking revenue, profits, dividends, measured half yearly, year on year, and so on. But if you're an investor in the companies that invested in Graham Kennedy, Paul Hogan, Norman Gunston and good old Stuart Wagstaff, then you are laughing suavely all the way to the bank, no matter which brand you smoked or didn't smoke. 10:43 This month marks the 70th anniversary of Australian history being made. 10:48 Good evening and welcome to television. 10:50 What he should have actually said was, welcome to commercial television. But people got the message soon enough with that Rothmans commercial. 10:59 I'm not sure if it still exists. 11:02 I highly doubt it. 11:04 Nevertheless, we can get an idea of what it might have said from the September 1956 Rothmans print campaign. 11:13 Their big newspaper ads leaned into the marvels of modern science. Across the top, the promise, Rothman's research is your guarantee of purity and consistent quality. 11:24 As proof, the hero photo showed a bloke in a lab coat doing science with an array of tubes and gizmos. The caption, seriously, said he was testing the sugar content of tobacco. But smoke of perfect sweetness achieved by science wasn't really the sell. 11:42 How do we know this? 11:44 because the main part of the ad told us that what was really important was a different sort of measurement. 11:51 Their boffin J. Rothmanheimer was pictured in service of harnessing that most elusive of all energy sources, and that'd be big dick energy. The ad's tagline was, Rothman's king size, the extra length is for greater smoothness. 12:08 Who said so? Well, Sigmund Freud said so. 12:12 Or at least, his nephew did. 12:15 A quarter of a century earlier, the pioneering evil genius of modern advertising, Edward Bernays, infamously cracked Freudian psychology to sell products. He was monetizing the family business. His uncle was Sigmund Freud. Anyhow, long story short... What Eddie proposed was that you weren't selling the thing, but you were identifying unconscious desires and then offering to satisfy them with a product. 12:45 Bernays' infamous demonstration of this principle was his flash mob of young women pretending to be suffragists at the New York Easter parade in 1929. 12:55 He got these ladies to spark up cigarettes simultaneously, having notified the press that something was going to happen. 13:04 Eddie's girls were defying the taboo that said women shouldn't smoke in public. 13:09 But they weren't smoking. They were igniting torches of freedom. 13:14 That was Eddie's tagline, and it worked a treat. 13:18 You gotta see it if you wanna be it. 13:21 Smoking rates among American women soared, from 5% in 1923 to 12% in 1929. The rate kept rising. That half of the population that hadn't smoked were now smoking, smoking curious, or at least smoking tolerant. That had been Eddie's brief. Convert the other half to sparking up a ciggy. Of course, he didn't do it alone after that. The tortures of freedom were carried over into other media. 13:52 Most notably, film. Hollywood's leading ladies smoking up as much of a storm as their leading men. Smoking became agency, equality, sophistication, defiance. It played a role in seduction. And if you doubt that, just put your lips together and and blow. 14:09 Back in the middle of the 20th century, people had what was called the picture habit. 14:15 Kids in Australia might see four a week, plenty of opportunity to see their heroes and heroines huffing and puffing. They could collect them too in the endless releases of cigarette cards offered by various brands. 14:30 Eddie Bernays' 1929 stunt would these days be called an interactive, immersive, multi-dimensional marketing experience, or some such nonsense. It strikes us as egregious, not because he sought to manipulate the minds of women en masse, but because it worked to such literally devastating effect. Yet arguably, Eddie could have slept soundly that night in 1929, dreaming his Freudian dreams. 14:58 Smoking's serious health consequences had not been scientifically established. Eddie Bernays did have plausible deniability. 15:08 I recently got a sarcastic comment from a listener accusing me of sitting on a moral high horse applying 21st century standards to the past. I may be guilty of this occasionally, but I do strive to hold the past accountable to its own standards. The they didn't know any better argument is usually a great steaming pile of you know what. 15:30 There's almost always extensive evidence showing they did know better, and they decided to go ahead and do it anyway. 15:39 Sometimes this was couched in what they believed was the greater good. 15:44 But it's curious how often the greater good perfectly aligned with greater profits, and freedom of speech equated with free markets. 15:54 Free as in unregulated. 16:00 The clean cigarette that's kind to your throat is Craven Filter. This is the era of the clean cigarette. That's why more and more people are changing to Craven Filter, because... 16:11 The filter's right. The flavor's right. It's the right. Clean cigarette. 16:17 Craven A. 16:20 In the era we're focusing on, 1956 to 1976, ignorance of the link between smoking and lung cancer was ridiculous to assert, and increasingly ridiculous to maintain. 16:39 They knew. 16:40 They knew, and so they followed a strategy that went, deny, deflect, distract, defend, repeat. 16:49 I'll start us off with this. 16:51 The British Medical Journal on the 30th of September 1950 published a peer-reviewed study titled Cigarettes and Cancer. Here's the first line. The steady increase in the recorded deaths from cancer of the lung is startling. Second line. In 1922, there were 612 deaths from this cause in England and Wales, compared with 9,287 in 1947, a 15-fold increase. The trend, the BMJ said, was the same in all Western countries. 17:24 All right, well, hang on, Governor, there's other causes, innit? The BMJ had anticipated this argument, quote, There can be little doubt that the incidence of cancer of the lung is really increasing, and tarred roads, exhaust gases, common respiratory infections, certain types of occupation, and tobacco smoking have all been blamed for the greater frequency of the disease. Of these possible causes, smoking seems the most likely, for the rise in the death rate from cancer of the lung has followed a great increase in the consumption of tobacco and cigarettes. 17:59 This was not an opinion piece. It was the British Medical Journal, citing studies, mortality rates, post-mortems, all that good stuff. 18:09 If they were talking about malaria, no one would have doubted it. 18:13 In Australia in 1950, this study got barely any coverage. I found two small articles in the city dailies. But articles in the British Medical Journal kept coming, and there'd be hundreds of headlines in Aussie newspapers, big and small, in the years before television. 18:32 Maitland Mercury, October 1952. Smoking Habits and Cancer. The Herald, Melbourne, October 1952. 18:40 Cancer Warning on Smoking, Weekly Times, Melbourne, April 1954, Don't Start Smoking, Brisbane Telegraph, April 1954, Cut Smoking, Doctors Appeal to Government, Sydney Morning Herald, November 1954, All Smoking, Cancer Risk. 18:59 Good to note that all of these publications got plenty of Mueller from tobacco advertising. 19:09 Anyhow, evidence kept mounting and more and more medical expert opinion said smoking caused lung cancer and heart disease and other problems. 19:19 In May 1956, British newspapers urged the British government to educate high school students about the risk of lung cancer from smoking. 19:29 New figures for soaring incidence of the disease were given. 19:33 Medical experts said the link was statistically incontrovertible. Heavy smokers were 20 times more likely to get lung cancer than non-smokers. 19:43 One of the things about the free market is that companies, particularly big companies, compete. That's what cigarette advertising is supposedly all about. Not getting people to start smoking, but getting them to change brands. Time and again, we see the big tobacco companies acting as one. In response to this latest British evidence, the seven leading British tobacco companies rolled up and rolled out a joint statement that said, The evidence of the possible relationship of lung cancer and smoking is conflicting and incomplete. 20:16 Statistics by themselves can never constitute proof of a cause and effect relationship. We think it right at this time to emphasize that only a small proportion of smokers can track the disease and the disease also occurs among non-smokers. 20:31 That language was carefully constructed. Only a small proportion of smokers. 20:38 Objectively, true. Of course, who is to define a small proportion when you're talking about early preventable deaths? I can't say how much consolation small proportion offered to the loved ones of the 17,271 Brits who coughed their last with lung cancer in 1955. 20:59 As a comparison, 23,000 had died in the Blitz of 1940. But smoking had killed more than 17,271 in 1955. Doctors just didn't know it yet. By their analysis, lung cancer accounted for 85 out of every 1,000 deaths among men 45 to 74. What were the others? 21:23 77 out of 1,000 were from bronchitis, 112 from cardiovascular events, 149 from other cancers. 21:34 Among the big British tobacco companies then denying, deflecting, distracting and defending were the big players in the Australian market through various wholly owned subsidiaries and licensing agreements. 21:46 Now it was about time for them to take their tobacco commercials into Australian lounge rooms through the magic of television. 21:54 British tobacco company Australia, who we'll hear much more about, was gearing up. They were building a new ciggy factory at Ormond in Melbourne to be the largest in the country. 22:04 In 1955, 1956, Australia's tobacco consumption was three pounds per head of population over the age of 15. That's 1.36 kilograms per person. Call that the equivalent of a 50-gram pouch of tobacco every two weeks. 22:23 On the 16th of September 1956, Australia got its first television commercial for cigarettes. 22:30 Later that year, the first locally made animated Smoko promo hit the screens. This little cartoon charmer brought to life a map of Australia. Perfect for the kids. 22:42 In September 1956, an article in the Sydney Morning Herald explained advertising rates for any readers who might be considering using the new medium. 22:52 For 120 quid, you could sponsor a prime time show, provided you also paid for the show, but then you owned it outright. 23:00 Or you could sponsor without producing for about 300 pounds. A straight up one minute ad shown once would cost you 52 quid. 23:08 take a shorter slot in a non-prime time position and you might get away with 10 pounds could the tobacco companies afford to embrace this new medium in the 1955 financial year british tobacco company australia posted a net profit of nearly 1.5 million pounds so plugging their brands in those early years cost amounts that were the same as rounding errors in their ledger books and they were tax-deductible. 23:38 Crumbs to them, but manna for the commercial television companies. 23:43 This was the modest start of what became a massively lucrative industry, and one that was increasingly important to the big tobacco corporations as they faced increased scrutiny. 23:55 In this episode, I'm going to focus on Benson & Hedges and Winfield because they had the two most memorable Australian Siggy Lebrides during the peak period of tobacco advertising on television. 24:07 They would also pivot when the time came to lavishing millions sponsoring the cricket and rugby league. What's also of interest about these two brands is that while they had identical products, their campaigns tried to create very specific and opposing vibes about lighting up. 24:26 Anyhow, have a Winfield. Benson and Hedges, the right cigarette when only the best will do. 24:31 You were buying what the brand said the brand stood for. 24:35 In 1956, B&H's print campaign in Australia featured a map of Blighty. All of the sites labelled, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Whitehall, Piccadilly, and bigger than all of them, in a zoomed circle with a flag, Benson & Hedges headquarters. The message was that the company was at the centre of the finest centre of finery in the known universe. 24:58 That was why buying a packet of Benson and Hedges cost a little bit more. They were imported. They had a royal warrant. Young Princess Margaret certainly liked them. 25:10 This print ad in 1956 included a line saying that many smokers freely admitted they couldn't taste the difference between different brands of cigarettes. 25:20 That was because the poor plebs weren't smoking Benson and Hedges, when only the best will do. 25:28 Yet in the UK, cigarettes were increasingly viewed as dangerous and deadly. There were moves afoot to rein in television advertising, starting in the obvious place in July 1958 by banning ciggy ads during kiddie programs. 25:44 This included just before and just after these shows directed at the Little Ones. 25:50 By 1960, 1961, Australians over the age of 15 were consuming four pounds of tobacco a year. That was up 33% in the first five years of television commercials for the product. 26:04 You know, if you were to follow a busy doctor as he makes his daily round of calls, you'd find yourself having a mighty busy time keeping up with him. Time out for many men of medicine usually means just long enough to enjoy a cigarette. 26:18 At this time, Australia established its National Health and Medical Research Council. Its aim, to give health and medical advice to the Commonwealth and state governments. The Council comprised the heads of the Commonwealth and State Departments of Health, representatives from ten medical associations and two laymen. The Council established an advisory committee to study the cigarette issue, including advertising. 26:45 In May 1960, Donald Pearce, the Minister for Health in the Menzies government, told the Senate, the Council believed there was a very strong link between smoking and lung cancer, which was increasing steeply, and, quote, Would the federal government take notice of this advisory committee? 27:13 Let's just say they took more advice from another advisory body. This was the Central Tobacco Advisory Committee. It recommended research projects aimed at growing more tobacco in Australia. 27:27 In 1961, they recommended projects in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia that would be funded to the tune of £290,000. 27:38 This money came out of the Tobacco Industry Trust account, which had been set up in 1955 to promote tobacco agriculture. Between 1956 and 1961, Australia's crop increased from about £6 million per annum to about £30 million per year. 27:58 As evidence against smoking became clearer and the government took a position it was harmful, this presented something of a contradiction, as did collecting excises. 28:10 Smokers weren't the only ones addicted to tobacco. 28:14 But was the science really settled? In 1961, a different point of view was put forward on Melbourne television by an MD. He was Robert J. Lee, and he patiently explained that most people were actually not worried about any link between lung cancer and smoking, and further, for every expert who said there was a link, quote, there was an equally competent authority to contradict the statement. Like I said, he was an M.D., managing director of Benson & Hedges in Canada and a director of Philip Morris in Australia. 28:49 Harry Wade, country party senator from Horsham, Victoria, succeeded Donald Pierce as health minister in December 1961. To say he inherited a horror show is putting it mildly. 29:03 To say he made it more of a nightmare is simply a fact. 29:08 Dr. William McBride in Sydney had just alerted the Lancet to a sedative on sale in Australia that contained thalidomide, and he believed thalidomide was the cause of serious birth defects. 29:21 The company that made the pills took them off the market in Australia in late November 1961. But for the next nine months, there were huge stocks of these pills on shelves still being sold. 29:34 Health Minister Harry Wade rejected advice to issue public warnings. 29:40 The importation of thalidomide products was banned in August 1962. 29:46 And four months after that, Mr. Wade was asked if he knew four additional brands containing thalidomide were being sold. His response was, he'd have to look into it. 29:57 In more recent times, parliamentary submissions from survivors of thalidomide expressed their rage that Australia's Minister of Health did next to nothing, or actually nothing, to alert women to the dangers of the drug. 30:11 Mr Wade, they contend, seemed more concerned with how this issue would affect the manufacturer than the victims. 30:22 Anyhow, in April 1962, while pregnant women were still taking pills containing thalidomide, Health Minister Harry Wade urged the general discouragement of smoking, particularly by young people, and said education programs in schools would be a wonderful thing. 30:41 It is evident that the value of educative work in schools will be reduced if posters, television and radio advertisements are specially designed to attract young people to smoking. I hope advertisers will examine this matter and develop appropriate means of meeting this problem by voluntary action. This is clearly to be preferred to government interference with advertising activities. 31:04 In his wisdom, Mr Wade had set the template for a decade's worth of policy on this issue. 31:11 On the same day, New South Wales Labor member Tommy Uren urged the government to control advertising by at least making the ads non-deductible from company taxation. 31:23 He wanted a sales tax too. Right then, government revenue from tobacco excise was £81 million per year. To Mr. Yuren's suggestions, Treasurer Harold Holt replied that if most Australians gave up the sickies, well, the government would be forced to find revenue elsewhere. Headline? New taxes if fewer smoke. 31:46 Benson and Hedges weren't made down under until May 1962. This was due to a new licensing deal. 31:54 As the Sydney Morning Herald would note in its business pages, Benson and Hedges was an example of the meaninglessness of names in international tobacco alignments. 32:05 belonged to Gallagher's in the UK, to Philip Morris in the US and Canada, and now to WD&HO Wills Australia Limited, which was a subsidiary of British Tobacco Australia. 32:20 Benson and Hedges would be made at the Wills factory at Raleigh Park, which is near Randwick in Sydney's eastern suburbs. 32:28 Wills had been churning out other ciggies here for decades. But of course, it wasn't about the backy, it was about the brand. The NH's brand was all about being better than the next bloke. 32:40 Their launch advertising said that B&H had previously been, quote, In reality, the difference in price had been a penny or two. Now, the company told Australians, though, the price of gold is down. In this advertisement, B&H said they were notoriously reticent about advertising themselves. 33:09 but they were breaking their traditional silence to, quote, break down this last barrier to everyday smoking pleasure. 33:18 a packet of the locally made B&H would cost you three and six. This was just pricey enough to reassure you that you weren't going to be smoking the same donkey muck being rolled up in the very same factory to satisfy the less discerning hoi polloi. 33:35 To be fair, B&H used a different line in their advertising, quote, Surely but a small premium to pay for the golden moments in store when you open the elegant gold packet. 33:48 B&H sales were, by July, already reported to be substantially above original estimates. 34:09 The following month, Dr. William Cotter Harvey, then president of the National Tuberculosis and Chest Association, said that it was a matter of urgency that cigarette commercials be prohibited before 9.30 p.m. 34:24 Dr. Cotter Harvey was one of Australia's most respected surgeons before and after World War II. But it was during the conflict that he ascended to heroic status in Changi and Kranji, where as a prisoner of war, he kept countless Australians alive from 1942 until their liberation in 1945. Now, Dr. Cotter Harvey was trying to save the Australians who'd been made possible by the Allies winning the war. the baby boomers. 34:55 He said, quote, there is no doubt that whether intentional or not, cigarette advertisements make a direct appeal to young people. The cigarette is made into a status symbol, the emblem of healthy outdoor youth. that was why they had to be banned from the airwaves before 9 30 pm this was 1962 cigarette commercials would be limited to after 9 30 pm but that wouldn't happen until 1975 and then only after the tobacco industry had fought tooth and coffin nail against any such measures At this time, the federal government was keeping very quiet about what the National Health and Medical Research Council was up to. 35:45 In May 1962, the council had reaffirmed its conclusions about cigarettes and lung cancer. Health Minister Harry Wade sat on this information for 11 months. 35:58 A little bit like thalidomide. 36:01 In April 1963, New South Wales Labor member Eddie Ward forced the issue in Parliament. Mr Wade had to make public the recommendations of the council, and these included that the Commonwealth and state authorities should aim for a complete ban on tobacco advertising and that an official warning on cigarette smoking should be issued. But as an urgent measure, government should consider a ban on tobacco ads that made unsubstantiated claims, such as smoking would make you successful or more beautiful or more sporty or healthy. 36:36 At the very least, the council said, government should limit commercials aimed at young people. 36:43 At this time, there were no restrictions at all on when cigarette commercials could be screened or what they contained. 36:52 Romper Room had just started. Kids watching it were also watching ads that showed the joys of smoking. 36:59 In 1962, a paper by the Royal College of Physicians in London had confirmed the risks of smoking. But that year, in his annual speech to shareholders, Australian chairman of Rothmans, Sir Ronald Irish, who'd launched the company down under, boasted of huge profit increases and a bigger market share of an ever-expanding Australian market. In the same speech, Sir Ronald sledged the science that might cut into those profits. He said the link between smoking and lung cancer wasn't confirmed. 37:30 The statistics were all very complicated, open to misinterpretation, etc. 37:35 Sir Ronald wasn't a doctor, but he had been one of Australia's leading accountants since the 1930s, so presumably he knew how to crunch numbers, how to read statistics. This man's entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography includes this, quote, Tirelessly Irish attacked what he saw as biased medical research into the consequences of a habit that was pleasurable and part of the social scene. 38:03 So, according to this, he was acting because he was against junk science and all for a good time, a voice of truth and an advocate for freedom. 38:13 In reality, he was undermining science for corporate profits. 38:18 In January 1964, there was an even bigger bombshell. The US Surgeon General's verdict on smoking came down in a 150,000 word report. And it was unequivocal. The average male smoker ran 9 to 10 times the risk of lung cancer as a non-smoker. A heavy smoker's risk was 20 times higher. 38:41 In Australia, extrapolation said that 2,000 men between the age of 30 and 64 who died in 1960 would still be alive if they'd been non-smokers. In the wake of the US Surgeon General's report, the chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Control Board told the press that they would probably discuss tobacco ads on TV and radio with the Postmaster General, who was in charge of the airwaves. 39:07 But neither of those elements of the story were given headline status in the age. Instead, it went with, Mr. Wade had told the press he had no powers to prohibit or even curtail tobacco advertising. In any case, he said education was much more effective than such prohibitions, as though it had to be one or the other. 39:34 Senator Wade, a country party man, was a farmer and a passionate advocate of primary industry. 39:41 In the very same issue of The Age, an article pointed out that Victoria had two policies on tobacco, which was true of Australia. 39:50 It's said while the state's health and education departments, spurred by the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, were making modest inroads with anti-smoking campaigns, the Department of Agriculture, backed with federal money, was, quote, heavily committed to fostering the state's tobacco-growing industry. 40:08 Right then, Victoria's tobacco crop was worth £12 million annually. 40:13 The following month, a Labour senator for New South Wales expressed amazement that Australia was the only country in the world where the government lacked power to restrict cigarette advertising. 40:25 If cigarettes were responsible for cancer, he said, pointedly, they should be dealt with in the same way as thalidomide. 40:33 Educational campaigns, such as those favoured by Senator Wade, would be futile if smoking continued to be promoted on television and radio and in print. 40:45 In February 1964, the Commonwealth government rejected a proposal that the National Health and Medical Research Council's advisory committee should even discuss a ban on cigarette ads. 40:58 Such discussion, they said, was premature. After all, the Surgeon General's report had only just been released. It would take time to make an appropriate study. 41:08 The science was in, from the UK and the United States, but just to be sure, the Australian government conducted its own survey. The results were summed up in the Sydney Morning Herald headline in mid-September 1964. 41:23 Lung cancer linked with smoking. 41:28 Benson and Hedges, the right cigarette when only the best will do. 41:32 Back to B&H. 41:34 How was their pretentious premium end campaign working? Spiffingly. The brand was the star performer for British Tobacco Australia. Sales increased by 37% in 1964-1965. 41:49 In the first four months of 1966, they were up 70% year on year. Directors believed the trend would continue. 41:57 The company's overall profits rose 11%. 42:01 B&H was the fastest growing brand in Australia. 42:05 In 1965, those British party poopers banned cigarette commercials altogether. 42:12 Wasn't it time Australia followed? 42:14 Simple answer, no. 42:16 The Federal Health Minister was now Reginald Swartz. Harry Wade had died of a sudden heart attack aged 59 at the end of 1964. 42:27 But his argument didn't die with him. Mr. Schwartz continued it. The federal government, he said, had no power to ban cigarette commercials, outside of course the Broadcasting and Television Act, which they were choosing not to use. 42:42 In late 1965, Australian doctors from the Australian Cancer Society petitioned the government to ban all forms of cigarette advertising. They said they didn't propose a ban on the manufacture of cigarettes because this would simply lead to bootlegging and be of little value. The idea was to reduce demand, supply would naturally follow. 43:04 In late 1965, the Federation of Australian Commercial Television Stations, acronym FACTS, which was beyond ironic, hurriedly said its members would abide by a voluntary code governing cigarette commercials. 43:19 There were nine provisions. Here are four of them. 43:23 1. Cigarette advertising must not be aimed at any non-smoker but must be intended to effect a change of brand among smokers. 43:32 2. Principal characters shown smoking cigarettes in any advertisements should not be under 25 years of age. 43:40 3. No cigarette advertising may be placed on television in children's programs or immediately before or after such programs. 43:50 4. Cigarette advertising may use attractive healthy-looking models, provided there is no suggestion that their attractive appearance or good health is due to cigarette smoking. This code was voluntary. It was written in the language of loopholes. 44:06 There were no penalties proposed. 44:10 The government, tobacco and television companies agreed to it, patted themselves on the back, and then everybody ignored it. 44:18 In February 1966, a month after the Code went into effect, Australia went decimal. 44:25 B&H went from 4 shillings for 20 ciggies to 40 cents. 44:30 Kent was the same price. Stives, Country Life, Consulate, they were 39 cents. Rothmans, Cravenay, Marlborough, Demoria and others were 38 cents. Alpines could be had for 36 cents. And you could smoke the appropriately named Turf for 32 cents a packet. So in the medium to top end, there wasn't a lot in it. They tasted the same. They cost the same. It was all about the feels. 44:56 By this stage Australia's per capita tobacco consumption had reached 4.2 pounds a year. 45:04 J. Walter Thompson's Australian office had the account for B&H. The local branch of this pioneering American advertising giant had opened in 1930. So they knew the Australian market. And no one knew the Australian cigarette commercial market better than Geoffrey Latimer. 45:22 He'd been in the game since 1959. 45:26 His career as a cigarette salesman would extend till 1972. 45:31 Over that period, he'd make 3,000 commercials. Given the mid-60s was the midpoint, it's safe to say by then, he'd made more than 1,000. He pulled off his greatest coup when he made Stuart Wagstaff a household name. 45:45 No tables? Oh, Stuart. No, it's alright. 45:50 I did remember the book. 45:51 So he won't be like that Englishman on the train to Vienna? Good. The train to... Oh, yes, I remember. 45:56 The charming British actor had made Australia his home in 1958. 46:01 He'd been successful enough on stage and here and there on screen. 46:06 But Geoffrey Latimer turned him into the face, voice and embodiment of Benson and Hedges' pretentious brand values. The suave Stuart smoothly got the best of any situation and got the girl, with Benson and Hedges as his secret weapon and as their shared reward, as a prelude to, well, good times. 46:27 So by spending 40 cents on a packet of Benson and Hedges, you're associating yourself with a brand that oozed wealth, sophistication, cosmopolitanism, humour and sex. 46:40 Benson and Hedges went gangbusters. 46:42 The posh market was so lucrative that Dunhill decided to have a crack at Aussies who wanted to feel blue-blooded and not just from their veins being starved of oxygen. 46:53 Dunhill launched with six pricey commercials that were filmed in stately homes in England owned by various minor aristocrats. Dunhill was every bit as hoity-toity even though they were being cranked out locally by Rothmans. 47:08 In the press, the Dunhill's marketing guru made much of the company's use of the stateliest of the stately homes of England, and this one belonged to the 6th Marquess of Bath. 47:20 Now, you're spot on if you're imagining that this chap needed filthy lucre to maintain his house and position. But the similarities to Downton Abbey end right there. 47:31 In 1966, Henry Finn, said Six Marquess, had just turned part of his stately manor into England's first safari park. Big cats were Henry Finn's thing, but he didn't just like lions, he loved liars too. 47:48 According to author Robert Harris, when Henry wasn't posing for photos with his cats or opening his house to Siggy commercial crews from Down Under, he was admiring his collection of paintings by the world's least admired artist, Adolf Hitler. 48:05 Henry had started collecting the Fuhrer's daubings in 1960. By 1983, he'd have more than anyone else in the world. According to Robert Harris, he quote, Anyhow, Dunhill paid this Hitler-loving freak, his home appeared on Australian television, and the brand took off. 48:28 Dunhill, for those who appreciate the finer things... 48:35 So how was that voluntary television commercial code working? 48:40 When the Postmaster General was questioned about this by Bill Hayden in the Senate in October of 1967, he said, quote, I understand the current television advertisements appeared generally to conform to the code. 48:54 This language couldn't have been more wishy-washy if he'd had a mouthful of Omoe. 49:00 He said, I understand, but he might be wrong. He said, current television advertisements, maybe not those screening yesterday or tomorrow. He said they appeared generally to conform, which meant 100% of nothing. 49:18 In 1967, a survey looked at 28 hours viewing time on three television channels. 49:25 They saw 134 separate cigarette commercials. 49:29 So you could expect three every two hours. 49:33 The frequency and sophistication of these ads would increase for another decade. It got to the point where you could expect one cigarette commercial every ad break. 49:44 In the late 60s, half of these were shown before 8.30pm and one fifth before 7.30pm. They'd be in crossover shows enjoyed by adults and kids, and they'd also be shown in and around programs like Skippy and Lost in Space. 50:01 So how is that voluntary code saying ads shouldn't be targeted at young people going? 50:07 The late Hilary Linstead is today remembered as one of Australia's great casting and talent agents, with good reason. But in 1967, long before she lined up the actors for Picnic at Hanging Rock and My Brilliant Career, she was in the business of selecting faces for television commercials. 50:24 She told the Australian Women's Weekly, quote, I am always on the lookout for presentable young people for cigarette commercials. 50:32 Hillary said it was embarrassing approaching them on the street, for everybody concerned. Quote, So now we get a lot of them from the daily social columns. If they look good and seem photogenic, my secretary tracks them down and asks them if they would like to do a TV commercial. Most say we'd love it. 50:50 You'll note there was no mention of whether these young people... looked or were under 25, per the code. 50:57 Anyhow, getting a gig in a cigarette commercial was easy, well paid, and offered a touch of fame. It might lead to bigger things. 51:06 In the background at this time, between 1967 and 1969, the federal government repeatedly put off decisions on health warnings or regulation of commercials, saying they were awaiting the results of surveys of public opinions about smoking just to ensure they got the approach right. 51:25 These surveys would have to go into reports, and then final reports, and all of these would have to be read, revised, reviewed, and then there'd be meetings and more meetings. By now, Jim Forbes was health minister for Robert Menzies. Here he is in April 1969. 51:43 The ministers agreed to give the labelling proposals detailed consideration with a view to proposing a uniform approach at their next meeting. Before then, it is expected that a final report on a survey of smoking attitudes will be received from the council, which meets in May 1969. 52:00 And here he is on advertising, same day, same answer. Quote, concerning the advertising of cigarettes, the 1968 Conference of Health Ministers agreed to await the detailed final report on smoking attitudes to indicate what would be the most valuable means of dissuading people from smoking and convincing young people that they should not commence. Pending receipt of this report, the government feels that publicity regarding smoking hazards, directed particularly towards young people, is to be preferred to the imposition of a ban over the advertising of tobacco and cigarettes. 52:34 So while they were waiting for the report, they'd kind of made up their mind. 52:40 When the survey of smoking habits of Australian school children was finally published by the National Medical Research Council in 1969, it did show that the biggest factor influencing children was attitudes and opinions expressed by their parents. This was used as evidence that nothing needed to be done about television advertising. 53:00 Meanwhile, tobacco commercials created another star in 1969. 53:10 This was young advertising chap Tony Barber, an account executive working on the Cambridge brand. 53:17 Say it with Cambridge this Christmas. 53:19 He stood in for the star of the ad when they were filming a test. 53:24 All Tony had to do was walk down the street and pretend to whistle. When whistling audio was laid over, the client liked what they saw. So in one fell swoop, Tony Barber went from tobacco advertising executive to tobacco advertising star, known as the Cambridge Whistler. Bruce Gingell suggested to Reg Grundy that this Tony Barber might make a good game show host, and he was fronting one a month later. It'd be a decade before Tony Barber went on to his biggest success. 53:56 All made possible because his first big sale of the century was Siggy's. 54:02 In 1969-1970, tobacco consumption in Australia in ready-made cigarettes reached 4.5 pounds per capita. 54:12 It had grown by 50% since 1955-1956. 54:18 In the US and the UK, it had dropped by 8%. 54:22 In the United States, the Nixon administration was going to ban cigarette commercials from television on the 1st of January 1971. 54:31 Wasn't it time Australia did the same? 54:34 The 1966 voluntary code had been a mere fig leaf for tobacco leaf. 54:40 Dr. William Cotter Harvey, who'd established and become the first president of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, called it a useless pretense. 54:51 Bill Hayden, Opposition's Shadow Minister for Health, said if Labor won government, they'd ban all forms of cigarette advertising. They'd also launch a vigorous anti-smoking campaign. 55:03 The country party, Mr Hayden suggested in Parliament, was generously funded by tobacco interests, who were bending the government to their will. 55:12 Australian cigarette manufacturers then spent about $12 million a year on advertising. 55:18 a buck for every australian man woman and child cancer research was being funded to the tune of about 10 cents per person a spokesperson for the anti-cancer council of victoria said it estimated 27 000 australians would die of lung cancer over the next six years the director of the british tobacco company australia mr sw bengtson came out as a spokesman for the whole industry He wouldn't comment directly on the Australian government, but he did say that the American situation was the result of coercion by a paternalistic government and goading by a bureaucracy. 55:58 Mr. Bengtson said the industry had known the Australian government was going in this direction. 56:05 That the tobacco industry thought ahead is shown by Geoffrey Latimer, who in 1968 made an unusual commercial booking. He staked out the last ever available time slot before a ban on cigarette commercials on television became law. 56:22 No one knew the last day or the last hour, but when it was upon Australia, Geoffrey Latimer's baby, Benson and Hedges, would own the last couple of minutes. 56:35 Australia's tobacco giants knew that a ban on television commercials was inevitable. 56:41 Where the UK and the US had gone, we would eventually follow. So it was about interference and obstruction, making the most of the game on the most favourable rules they could obtain for as long as possible. 56:55 Mr. Bengtson said that the tobacco industry would continue to rely on the code of ethics agreed voluntarily with the Federation of Australian Commercial Television Stations in January 1966. 57:09 They would revise this if the government asked. The National Archives of Australia holds a 100-plus page file about the next half-arsed attempt to do something, or be seen to do something. 57:24 The government now privately acknowledged that public sentiment was strongly in favour of them taking action. 57:31 The Department of Health and the Broadcasting Control Board wanted a ban on cigarette advertising on television between the hours of 4pm and 8.30pm or 9pm. 57:43 8.30 was the time at which AO, adults only, programs could be shown. 57:50 The government wanted other parts of the code to be tightened and for these to be made obligatory rather than voluntary. They also wanted restrictions placed on radio advertising. 58:02 Government emissaries met with the tobacco executives. 58:05 The latter said they were willing to revise the code, but they said no way to time limitations. 58:13 The tobacco industry said no to the federal government. 58:18 Negotiations continued. The companies made a concession. 58:22 How about no cigarette commercials between 3pm and 7.30pm, Monday through to Saturday, and no cigarette commercials until 7.30pm on Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day. 58:37 The tobacco companies said they were giving up news and current affairs slots and some sport too. But what they were keeping was that family hour when mums and dads and youngsters might watch something all together after tea and before bedtime. 58:54 The National Archives' files contains the background information put together by the Health Department. This included a chronology of major health studies, recommendations for a ban on advertising, codes and laws implemented already in the UK and the US. 59:10 It also included graphs, one showing lung cancer rates in Australia going from 15 per 100,000 males in 1950 to 40 per 100,000 in 1969. 59:24 The new time restrictions were agreed by the government. 59:27 The internal documents said it was the best they could get out of the tobacco companies. 59:34 But there was a carve-out. Quote, Announcements which indicate sponsorship of a sporting program by a manufacturer are accepted. So if Benson and Hedges or Craven A happened to be sponsoring footy or cricket, they could tell kids all about this during Romper Room or Skippy. 59:53 One of the Commonwealth health officials made notes on these meetings that included the objections raised by the commercial television and tobacco industry representatives. In a handwritten note to his boss in the National Archives file, he said he was including these because they might be of interest to historians. 60:12 One of these notes was a tobacco executive claiming that per capita consumption of tobacco in Australia had fallen over the past decade, while it had risen in other countries. 60:24 The file has a pencil mark next to this sentence and a question mark. 60:29 It was blatantly untrue. 60:32 The notes also make it clear that the representatives wanted to make it known that they didn't believe television advertising influenced children to smoke and so there was actually no reason to limit commercials at all. They were making generous concessions, quote, in the light of the present climate of public opinion and as a demonstration of their responsible and cooperative attitude in ensuring that the primary object is maintained of there being no direct appeals to young people encouraging them to smoke. 61:02 Of course, their own voluntary code had explicitly said this in late 1965, and they'd flaunted it, which was why this revised code was necessary. 61:13 Even so, the revised code was again in the language of loopholes. Quote, "'Cigarette advertising shall be directed only to adult smokers and intended to effect a change of brand.'" This could be subject to wide interpretation. That was, if someone took the time to complain to the Federation of Australian Commercial Television Stations about their voluntary code... 61:38 But the one that's of particular interest to us is this one. 61:50 This would also be a matter of opinion. Kids might not get the comic starlings of Graham Kennedy, or be particularly susceptible to the smooth suavities of Stuart Wagstaff, but what about other comedians? Australia would find out soon enough. 62:08 In 1972, Billy McMahon's government introduced mandatory health warnings for radio and television tobacco advertisements and also for packaging. 62:17 These were gentle, reminding people that medical experts said smoking was a health hazard. Phrases like smoking kills and photos of barfed up lungs would come much later. 62:30 Nevertheless, Australia's tobacco industry was facing headwinds. 62:35 It was in June 1972 that year that Rothmans launched a new brand. Previously, there'd been Winstons and Chesterfields. Now, there was Winfield. 62:48 A report in the Sydney Morning Herald explained, according to marketing men, it takes up to four years for a cigarette to reach the zenith of its popularity, so Rothmans will probably not reap a great deal in earnings from Winfield for some time yet. 63:02 But that was wrong. 63:04 Winfield had an absolute weapon that they could wield to appeal to the working class. His name was Paul Hogan. 63:18 I'm Michael Adams and you've been listening to Forgotten Australia. 63:22 The Last Gasp, Stubbing Out Ziggy Commercials Part 2, will go on general release soon, but it will be available early and ad-free for Apple and Patreon supporters. That's apple.co forward slash forgotten Australia, patreon.com forward slash forgotten Australia, and those links are in the show notes. 63:43 As always, thanks for listening. 63:50 you