In the 1980s, tobacco company WD & HO Wills tasked its marketers with running an ad campaign in Australia. Their choice of slogan? ‘Get your own black.’

A decade later, executives at Winfield played the same card. Their ad said the quiet part even louder. It depicted an Aboriginal man playing a didgeridoo. Their slogan was ‘Australians’ answer to the peace pipe.’

Knowing this, is it any wonder that for-profit tobacco accounts for 37 per cent of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths? Or that in those older than 45 years, it accounts for half of all deaths?

We already know that tobacco profiteers undermine Indigenous health and wellbeing. They’ve done this for centuries, all over the world. They only adapt their tactics to the times. But how?

 

Tactic 1: Predatory advertising

Tobacco advertising blatantly targets Indigenous populations. Australia’s ‘peace pipe’ has many international counterparts.

In the United States, R.J. Reynolds profits from a brand called Natural American Spirit. It uses Indigenous imagery and the words ‘organic’ and ‘natural’ to falsely imply they are safer to smoke.

 

Tactic 2: Choosing targets

Profiteers meticulously plan supply chains and distribution networks to access Indigenous populations. They also target schools.

They now use algorithms for this, and for advertising and pricing decisions. Social media ads – sometimes run covertly – glamorise use to young people. Here, this undermines advertising laws. Memes and reels can reach young Australians from any jurisdiction.

 

Tactic 3: Hiding behind sponsorships

In November 2019, the Director of External Affairs at Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc Jeff Gaulin opened a harm reduction conference in Canada.

He led with, ‘why is the world’s largest maker of cigarettes assembling a harm reduction conference?’

Profiteers often feign good intentions. They even outright hide their presence. On this occasion, branding was absent from conference advertising.

Only when Gaulin identified himself was the sponsorship revealed. Presumably, some attendees were meant to be unaware.

 

Tactic 4: Claiming addiction is a personal choice

Commercial tobacco is built on one narrative: that use is a personal choice. Though freedom is obviously compromised by addiction, they still say being encouraged to smoke is liberating.

When they shift blame onto users, it leads to stigma in healthcare. It creates a cycle of addiction.

It’s especially unfair when most people who smoke start young, before they can fully grasp what lifelong addiction is and means for their health.

 

Tactic 5: Ignoring Indigenous histories

Commercial tobacco eradication would be justice. In both Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, Indigenous leaders have been calling for eradication.

Smoking is much more prevalent among Indigenous people. They carry a disproportionate health burden compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts.

While daily rates across the Tasman have fallen, inequities remain: Approximately 14.7 per cent of Māori smoke daily, compared with 6.8 per cent of Pākehā (non-Māori).

Vaping is no exception. In 2023/24, its prevalence among Māori was 28.8 per cent. This makes Māori nearly three times as likely to vape as Pākehā New Zealanders.

This holds among adolescents. A survey of secondary school students found that 22.3 per cent of Māori students vape daily. This number was 7.5 per cent among their Pākehā classmates.

This reflects a history shared with Australia: British settlers using tobacco to coerce Indigenous populations.

Understanding addiction’s roots in the past also exposes profiteer lies and spin, like Indigenous populations have a ‘genetic predisposition’ to addiction or that addiction is a personal choice.

Here, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers were ‘paid’ in tobacco instead of wages as recently as the late 1960s.

Settlers excluded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from the cash economy and education systems. It systematically entrenched addiction.

Australian leaders have to join their friends in Aotearoa New Zealand on the path to eradication.

 

So, how can policymakers stop for-profit tobacco?

Show leadership by pursuing eradication. This will have a rapid impact. Specifically, find ways to empower healthcare workers in helping patients quit.

This complements work like the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program. The National Tobacco Strategy 2023–2030 can be used to lay the foundations of eradication.

The central role of formal healthcare in quitting is well-established. Strengthening quitting supports is in line with the National Tobacco Strategy and the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

In practice, this means implementing policies that equip health professionals – especially in regional and remote Australia – with up-to-date knowledge and training.

Treatment changes as evidence builds, and doctors struggle to support clients to quit if they aren’t kept up to date with the latest quitting advice.

Additionally, policymakers have to monitor efforts to undermine progress. Profiteers intentionally make it hard for people to quit, and countries are no different.

They will resist reform. It’s only by overcoming them that Australia can uphold the Human Right to Health.