Plain packaging will hit sales hard, and big tobacco is worried

This article was published in The Sydney Morning Herald 20 April 2011

So, the move to cigarette plain packaging will do nothing to reduce the rate of smoking, but it will be a pain in the proverbial for shopkeepers. I'm told this at least once an hour on talk radio, so it must be true.

But things aren't always what they appear to be. I know this as a reformed tobacco executive. I was employed by Rothmans of Pall Mall from 1994 to 1998 in Queensland, NSW and Victoria in charge of about $250 million in annual supermarket sales.

Working for big tobacco is a double-edged sword. Sure, it's a legal product, and you could get hit by a bus tomorrow (although I'd take my chances with the bus versus smoking). Over time, I started to feel the imaginary horns attached to my head, especially when asked by my child's teacher what I did for a living.