The UK Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has banned an advertisement for OCB cigarette papers which appeared in the adult magazine Viz over claims it glamorises smoking.

The advertisement by OCB Papers Ltd, which showed a scantily-clad woman with cigarette rolling papers appearing to float out of her handbag, prompted a complaint against the cigarette papers company to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA). The model was pictured in silver high-heels, skimpy shorts, and sitting with her legs crossed next to the slogan: “OCB X-PERT: Europe’s Premium Cigarette Paper.”
ASA deemed the advert to breach the advertising standards code under clauses 2.2 (Responsible advertising) and 55.1 (Tobacco, rolling papers and filters). The rules covering the marketing of rolling papers and filters, as laid out in the CAP Code (“Committee of Advertising Practice”), state that ads should not imply that smoking was glamorous or link smoking with people who were fashionable or possessed attributes or qualities that might reasonably be expected to command admiration. “We considered that the woman in the ad was dressed in a stylish and glamorous manner, as though for a party or night club, and readers were likely to infer from the image that cigarette papers – and therefore smoking – were part of that individual’s life and recreational activities,” so ASA on its website.
“We acknowledged that there was an element of fantasy in the image as a result of the cigarette papers apparently elevating from a handbag and drifting through the air, and recognised that readers would understand that the image was stylised and unreal. Nevertheless, we considered that the advert associated smoking and a glamorous, fashionable or sophisticated lifestyle, which was irresponsible and breached the code in relation to the marketing of cigarette rolling papers.”
OCB Papers has been told the advert must not appear in the magazine – or anywhere else – again. The company said the advert did not associate smoking with glamour, but rather associated a quality cigarette paper with the quality of the model featured. They pointed out that only one complaint had been made after the advert had been published throughout Europe and seen by millions of readers. (pi)