Keep Smiling No One's Going to Die

In 1999, the House of Commons Health Select Committee obtained access to these internal documents from the five main advertising agencies with UK tobacco accounts as part of their investigation into the conduct of the UK tobacco industry. Click here to read the results of their investigations Health Committee Publications 1999-2000^1,2.

The Centre for Tobacco Control Research at the University of Strathclyde was asked to analyse copies of the advertising agencies' documents and prepare a report for the Committee's investigation. "Keep Smiling - no one's going to die" by Gerard Hastings and Lynn MacFadyen is a summary of that report.

Using direct quotes from these internal documents, it covers seven key points:

1. The impact of advertising on consumption as well as brand share
2. Response to Government policy and regulations
3. Targeting the young and the promotion of brand imagery
4. The role of marketing
5. How sponsorship and advertising become the same thing
6. Offensive practices
7. Health issues and how they are avoided

Hastings & MacFadyen summarise their analysis: "One is left with the inescapable conclusion, that given the greatest threat to public health this country has faced since the great plague, these people are having fun, making money and show absolutely no concern for the consequences of their actions."

"Keep Smiling - no one's going to die" takes its title from the 'gung ho' signing off of an advertising agency letter to their tobacco industry client.

(Benson & Hedges Correspondence (September to December), 1995, Doc No 0084, p6)

¹ House of Commons Health Select Committee (2000). Second Report - The Tobacco Industry and the Health Risks of Smoking. Volume I Report and Proceedings. London: The Stationary Office Ltd, 14th October 2000. HC 27-I.

² House of Commons Health Select Committee (2000). Second Report - The Tobacco Industry and the Health Risks of Smoking. Volume II Minutes of Evidence and Appendices. London: The Stationary Office Ltd, 14th October 2000. HC 27-II.

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