‘The governor of North Carolina Pat McCrory is the latest American politician to call on the Government to scrap its plans to introduce plain packaging on cigarettes and other tobacco products.’
The article further details the governor’s fight to help protect tobacco brands;
“Imagine if the United States required Guinness to be stripped of its universally recognised brand and be marketed solely as ‘beer’ or Jameson to be labelled simply as ‘whiskey’ and Baileys as ‘liqueur’,” said the governor
Of course when the tobacco industry brings in over $32 billion in taxation to the American government it will have a few advocates. Thankfully the Irish people have already taken a stand against the agents of evil, so I think that anyone who has come across Mr McCrorys letter should drop him a line to let him know what the people of Ireland think about his brand values.
'Dear Governor McCrory,
In response to your letter appealing to the Irish people to protect your cancer brands I would first like to introduce you to the concept that we are not a nation of senseless whiskey guzzlers as portrayed in many of your nations most popular media streams.
Comparing items such as anthrax and cigarettes to international alcoholic beverages does not make us feel any closer to your cause.
The reason we are introducing plain packaging is to fight the battle against lung cancer, see lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in Ireland and 90% of all cases are caused directly by smoking.
Ireland is a small nation, I don’t believe we can deliver world peace or solve global warming or put a man on the moon any time soon, but what we can do is to identify a clear injustice in the world, an injustice whereby Tobacco companies profiteer from the lives of ordinary people, and what we have done is declared a war on cancer and if that means taking on the tobacco industry so be it, because every life saved is a life worth fighting for.
In March 2004 Ireland became the first country in the world to introduce comprehensive legislation banning smoking in workplaces, this included public houses and restaurants, traditionally a stronghold of the tobacco companies, the result was that cigarette sales fell by 60% in bars and it was reported that that 7,000 people gave up smoking in the first 12 months after the ban came into effect, doesn’t sound like a lot, well Mr McCrory that is 7,000 lives as far as I’m concerned and nearly twice the death toll of US soldiers in your war on Iraq, to put things in context.
Plain packaging has already been introduced in Australia and studies show the fastest decline in smoking in over twenty years, encouraging for our goal to be tobacco free by 2025.
Mr McRory we will not deter form reaching our goal, we may not be the largest nation on this green earth but we will prevail in our fight against cancer agents, and we will lead the way for our European neighbors.
Please feel free to die of lung cancer if you are still in opposition to plain packaging by the time you read this.
Regards
The People’s Champ'
I decided to e-mail the Gov myself so hopefully he will write back and we can be friends and stuff, also please feel free to drop him a line if you're anti-cancer
http://www.governor.state.nc.us/contact/email-pat