from website http://www.nietrokers.nl/e/n12120.html Australia: PM sponsoring teenage fun Tobacco giant Philip Morris is behind an Internet company set up to run fashion parades and rave parties aimed at teen girls. The company also provides dance parties and Melbourne nightclubs with free go-go dancers decked out in Philip Morris corporate colors. Anti-smoking lobby group Quit claims the Wavesnet website is an "insidious" attempt to lure young smokers. There is no indication on the site that Philip Morris owns the trademark. Visitors to the site are enticed with free offers to become Wavesnet members and attend Wavesnet events. They are asked if they want "fashion action, dance party mayhem and access to new gear before it hits the shops". While entry to the events is supposed to be restricted to those aged 18 and over, a reporter from the Herald Sun posing as a 17-year-old girl was able to join Wavesnet immediately. Our investigation has discovered: Two of Wavesnet's three directors are also directors of Philip Morris's advertising agent Mojo and the third is a former Mojo director. Mojo is responsible for marketing Alpine for Philip Morris, which has annual supermarket sales of more than $100million in Australia. Only two $1 shares in Wavesnet have been sold and both are owned by Publicis Communication, which was described by Wavesnet as Mojo's online and direct marketing division. The Publicis group owns Mojo. Some sponsors of the Wavesnet fashion awards claim they were signed up without being told that Philip Morris was a co-sponsor and that they wouldn't have lent their names if they had known of its involvement. Quit staff who went to a recent Wavesnet Melbourne fashion awards night claim they saw patrons taking Alpine cigarettes from an unattended display on the nightclub bar. Four Alpine girls were also selling discounted cigarettes at the event, which was attended mainly by young women. Philip Morris has been providing Alpine packs for sale with promotional items that appeal to young women, including an item that rave-goers claim is ideal for hiding illegal drugs in. Some angry sponsors pulled out of the fashion awards after being warned about the cigarette company's involvement. Others are considering following suit. Some fashion award sponsors feel they were conned into lending their good names to the Philip Morris-sponsored events. Other sponsors claim they were in the dark about Philip Morris's role in the nights until after they had signed up. Source: Herald Sun, 11 December 2000 Visit the Wavesnet site to experience all this. more info http://www.health.usyd.edu.au/tobacco/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
