Exporting Confidence Tricks

If a cleverly-constructed lie is worth doing, it seems the tobacco control industry feel it's worth doing more than once.

In an attempt to con the public and MPs (the latter will obviously be more susceptible) of the dramatic need to place tobacco in plain packaging, Cancer Research UK ran a targeted online video which deserves plaudits for its clever manipulation of the truth. Oh, and also the genius camera panning which could almost have been scripted to coincide with expected responses from kids, if one was being cynical.

It went something like this.

If you've ever been a subject of market research, you will know how skilled interviewers are at getting the results their clients require so I won't insult your intelligence - like CRUK - by going into detail about how easy it is to create such a video with enough cash at your disposal from donors believing they are helping to find a cause for cancer.

Of course, in the real - unscripted and unedited world - if you put coloured anything in front of kids they would say the same thing.

Washing liquid, weed killer, candles, condom packets, you name it. They're all multi-coloured but kids have no interest in them whatsoever. It's a mantra in the advertising industry that if you don't notice the ad, it's not aimed at you.

Which is why - by CRUK's own admission - kids don't even notice cigarette packaging.

However, the fact that the film failed over here has not dissuaded New Zealand campaigners from attempting an identical confidence trick as they start down the same counter-productive road. Spot the difference.

And, because some don't speak English there, in two languages!

I'd say they have more money than sense, except for the fact that it's almost certainly not theirs that they are wasting on identikit video sophistry.