Implementation of Plain Packaging †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Implementation of Plain Packaging. Answer: Introduction Health warnings are mandatory in all the tobacco related products for retailing in Australia. The graphic warnings for health delivers a confronting and strong message to all the smokers regarding the harmful consequences of health that are caused due to the tobacco products and transmit the message for quitting whenever a person reaches to cigarette. The warning statements along with the graphics and the explanatory messages are proposed to increase the knowledge level of the people regarding the harmful impacts of cigarettes and to influence them to quit smoking (Newman-Norlund et al. 2014). The health department has some responsibility policies towards the health warnings and the Competition and Consumer (Tobacco) Information Standards 2011 is enforced by the Australian competition and consumer commission (Scollo et al. 2015). On 1st January 2012, the standards of the act has been expanded and updated and it has been made mandatory to include the following warnings related to the health from 1st December 2012: Five warnings for the cigars that includes explanatory messages, warning statements and graphics Increase in size of the graphics for the health warnings that must cover at least 75% of front surface for the packaging of tobacco products. 14 health warnings for most of the tobacco smoked products that include explanatory messages, warning statements and graphics (Wakefield et al. 2015). Maintaining 90% of the size of the back surface of the package that requires and to increase the size regarding covering of 75% of the back surface of most of the products. Cigars that are sold singly must include the health warning. 13 messages must be included regarding the health impacts of the chemicals that are included in the tobacco products in the cigarette packets and the cartons on the loose packs of tobacco. A rotational system must be there that will optimise the awareness and learning of the customers regarding the heath impacts of the smoking. There shall also include the 2 sets for the 7 health warnings that shall be changed in every 12 months. Since 1973, health warnings are continued to be appeared in the packaging of the tobacco products in Australia. However, during 1973 to 1994, it was required to put the health warnings through the separate legislation in each territory and state. The very 1st warning was like Warning Smoking is a health hazard and thereafter it expanded to 4 rotating warnings during 1985 that covered 15% of the front side of all the tobacco related packages (White, Williams and Wakefield 2015). Major stakeholders in the debate regarding the health warnings on cigarette packs The shareholders of the debate related to the health warnings of the cigarettes are in the view that the product like cigarette is different from the other regular products of the industry. The major shareholders of the debate are the doctors, advocates of public health and journalists who are always focussed on the question that whether cigarette caused the life taking disease like lung cancer. It is established that the product like cigarette itself is harmful enough to draw the action of the government (Hiilamo, Crosbie and Glantz 2014). Ethics associated with the advertising of tobacco products involves the concerns regarding the ethical questions for the advertising. Advertising is known as the attempt made by the owners of the services and goods to influence the potential and current customers to buy their products. Therefore, the intention of the advertisers or the owners of the product is to represent their product in such a way that will maximise the desirability of their product in the mind of the potential buyers. Some customers are in the view that the advertisement on the pack of the cigarettes is moral as it assists in taking rational decisions and making rational choices (Mays et al. 2014). However, the advertisements that are persuasive in nature are argued as unethical as it has an impact on the independent decisions of the consumers and the advertisements convince them to purchase the products. The major ethical issues associated with this are as follows: Information in the advertisements one of the major arguments that are in favour of the advertising is that the advertising offers the customers with crucial information related to the services and products that are offered for sale. The economists are in the view that economic transactions are associated with optimum information when all parties to the transaction have optimum information. The information here means the information related to the price, usage and the availability of the product in the market. As there is some time limit for the advertisements in the media, the content of the advertisement may not cover all the required information regarding the product like its usages, its origin, its qualities, its prices and the all the impacts of that may arise due to the usage of the product (Maynard et al. 2016). Therefore, the advertisers have the option of selecting the information that they want to show and the information they do not want to show. It is quite obvious that t he advertisers will show that things only which will persuade the potential customers to have desires for the product and for sure will not reveal the ill effect of the product. The major ethical question that arises here that in selection of the information that will be given through the advertisement has any intention of dishonesty to cheat the customers is involved or not. Another question is that whether the advertiser intentionally does not give full information to mislead the consumers or not. If the answers of these questions are in affirmative, then the standards of the advertisements for deception of the consumers will regard all the advertisements as unethical and does not offer clear idea regarding the advertisements of tobacco products that is exceptional in nature and demands for special treatment (Shankleman et al. 2015). Lies behind the tobacco advertisements - in any field, lying is considered is unethical. A lie is defined as a statement that is made by a person who knows it to be false. Three major elements are there when it is associated with the tobacco products. Those are: Determination of the intention with which the tobacco advertisements are suggested to their audience Tobacco advertisers are well known of the fact that the propositions are false Conception of the consumer who believes the false claims made in the advertisements of tobacco products and treats it as true (White, Williams and Wakefield 2015). Most of the advertisements for the tobacco products include very less verbal or written propositions regarding the tobacco products that can easily be treated as false or true, depending upon the mindset of the potential consumers. Therefore, the aspects of true or false vary with the person to person. It is baseless to argue upon the content of true or false as one statement which is true to someone may seem to be false to someone else. While the advertisements of tobacco products are communicated to large group of people and the number of smokers all over the world is quite high, it is a difficult task to establish the advertisements as false communication (Zacher et al. 2014). Cheating through omission another way of establishing the advertising of tobacco products as misleading is to check whether omission of one particular information leads to the consumers being misguided. The major issue here is that whether there should be any particular format of advertising or the particular information that must be included in the advertising to protect the consumers from being misguided. With the advertisements of tobacco products, it is argued by many people that the risks arising from the tobacco products are very high and therefore, the advertisements must include at least the detailed warnings related to health to maximise the resonance and comprehensibility (Andrews et al. 2016). The decision under the place of Randall Hedges If I were in the position of Randall Hedges, the public relation manager of Big Business Tobacco (BBT), I would have definitely opt for the inclusion of health warnings in the cigarette pack that is mandatory under the Australian law. Though the bottom line of every business is to earn profit, however, as the tobacco products are exceptional is its involves some ethical issues regarding the health hazards, the consumers must be informed about the ill effect of the tobacco products (Scollo et al. 2015). It is not mandatory in various Asian countries to include the health warning in the pack of the cigarettes, but if the ethical sides taken into consideration then the warnings must be included to make the consumers well informed about the product that they are consuming. Moreover, in the long-run the company will achieve a better position towards the corporate social responsibility through showing-up the concerns for the people (Durkin et al. 2015). Conclusions It is concluded from the above discussion that though there are lot of arguments regarding the advertisements of tobacco products and the ethical way to advertise the product, it is established that the pictorial warnings increases the awareness of the people and recall the health impacts from the usages of tobacco products. Prominent warnings increase the cessation of the services. A widespread strategy that includes awareness and education must be adopted to increase the level of awareness. The bigger graphics that are based on the pictorial warnings are influential to enforce and that have the biggest impact on the consumption of tobacco. Such pictorial inclusion may lead to loss for the tobacco companies but it carries a positive attitude for a better future for the people who consume the tobacco products. Total value of the below mentioned items as per the consolidated financial statements for the year ended 30th June 2016 Cash (and cash equivalents) - $ 51,884,000 Inventories - $546,437,000 Sales revenue - $ 39,54,467,000 Other income - $546,000 Plant and equipment - $183,570,000 Interest expenses - $38,57,000 Sales and marketing expenses - $ 404,575,000 Occupancy expenses - $ 173,792,000 Trade and other payables $ 384,928,000 Borrowings (non-current) - $ 109,736,000 (Jbhifi.com.au, 2017). Normal balance for each of the account Items Normal balance Effect of decrease Cash (and cash equivalents) Debit Asset side of balance sheet Inventories Debit Asset side of balance sheet Sales revenue Credit Revenue side of income statement Other income Credit Revenue side of income statement Plant and equipment Debit Asset side of balance sheet Interest expenses Debit Expenses side of income statement Sales and marketing expenses Debit Expenses side of income statement Occupancy expenses Debit Expenses side of income statement Trade and other payables Credit Liability side of balance sheet Borrowings (non-current) Credit Liability side of balance sheet Other accounts that are most likely to be affected - Cash (and cash equivalents) with increase of cash, the cash receivable account is reduced Inventories - Increase of inventory reduces that cash balance Sales revenue increase in sales revenue will increase the organizations shareholders equity like retained earnings and the assets like account receivables or cash Other income - increase in other income will increase the organizations shareholders equity like retained earnings and the assets like account receivables or cash Plant and equipment increase in plant and equipment will probably reduce the cash or increase the accounts payable along with the increase in depreciation expenses. Interest expenses increase in interest expenses will reduce the organizations shareholders equity like retained earnings and the assets like account cash and will increase the liabilities like borrowings Sales and marketing expenses - increase in sales and marketing expenses will reduce the organizations shareholders equity like retained earnings and the assets like cash Occupancy expenses - increase in occupancy expenses will reduce the organizations shareholders equity like retained earnings and the assets like cash Trade and other payables increase in trade and other payables will increase the purchase account Borrowings (non-current) with increase in borrowing the liability of the organization as well as the interest expenses go up. Reference Andrews, J.C., Netemeyer, R.G., Burton, S. and Kees, J., 2016. Effects of plain package branding and graphic health warnings on adolescent smokers in the USA, Spain and France.Tobacco control,25(e2), pp.e120-e126. 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