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Pushing a product that tends to kill when used as intended has been made more difficult since the Government cracked down on tobacco advertising and sponsorship.

The Smoke-free Environments Act 1990 limited tobacco promotion to point-of-sale pricing placards, and the 1997 Amendment goes even further. You now have to be 18 to buy cigarettes, and from the end of this year the only promotional material allowed anywhere will be black-and-white business-card-size price notices. With these restrictions, it's been virtually impossible for cigarette companies to break new brands into the public consciousness and attract those vital new customers (established ones keep, y'know, dying).

But desperation breeds innovation, and the evolution of the lovey-dovey, one-world dance party scene into one of corporatised millennial hedonism has seen more smoke appearing on the dancefloor; perhaps not surprising given that most promoters need no excuse to puff large volumes of machine-generated clouds over young ravers.

Eyebrows were raised over a year ago when the Roots Foundation, a long-standing group of local dub, reggae and jungle DJs, began a series of striking posters for their events using parodic imagery derived from cigarette, rolling papers and match packets. However Roots promoter John Pell, who coordinated the campaign in association with local design firm Meanest Indian in the Land, has said that no money was ever received from tobacco companies.

But in the last year, with increasing frequency and boldness, thousands of tobacco dollars have been inhaled by NZ club culture, through point-of-sale sponsorship, magazine spreads and CD covers.

Cigarette brand placement at dance events is widespread, with promoters pocketing money to cover outrageous fees charged by overseas DJs, and compensate for the ebbing flow of local sponsorship dollars. Positioning of painted and illuminated tobacco signs in clubs and bars is commonplace.

At last year's 95bFM Private Function, the alternative radio types were gulled by a canny entrepreneur who arranged to do the coat check for gold coins, then turned up with a golden Bags & Hats sign (geddit?) to boost the take. Dirty money? Maybe. But in this freemarket environment, who cares?

Suddenly, a lot of people. It shows how out-of-touch mainstream culture and media are when they came sniffing to the ashtray long after word on the street told of tobacco companies pumping money into a scene that has all the fashion and glamour they used to affiliate with through sponsorship of fashion awards and similarly desirable events.

The ash really hit the fan in late July, when Auckland 'nu-urban lifestyle' magazine Re:Mix was cited in the NZ Herald as scraping the boundaries of acceptability. Targeted were the magazine's increasingly blatant Scene De Luxe pages, which utilised the signature red and blue colours, gold trim, typography and 'London, Paris, New York' slogan of the Rothman's brand Dunhill to surround photos of nightlifers at dance events around the country.

The Re:Mix team - Andy Pickering and Tim Phinn - refuse to comment on whether they received payment for the spreads, though one has to ask, if not, why do it? And why do it on such a consistent basis?

The eighth issue of Re:Mix, in July, featured three Dunhillesque pages, including a photo of a Dunhill banner at an event, and (almost unbelievably) a credit in bold capital letters thanking "Ant @ Dunhill".

Around the same time as the Re:Mix pages entered public consciousness, Auckland DJ Chelsea released a mix CD of compiled techno and house tracks, nzdj01: chelsea, through BMG, and embarked on a national tour in support of the disc. The promotional flyers for this tour, which uses a supportive quote from Re:Mix's Andy Pickering, and the packaging of the CD closely mirror that of the red Dunhill packet, including Chelsea's vinyl carry-box with its 'Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch' and 'Warning: Dancing Can Cause Euphoria' lines.

Yet BMG marketing manager and hardcore anti-smoker George Spence is adamant that there nothing underhand has taken place. The official sponsor of the CD and tour is Fudge, he says. 'BMG has nothing to do with Dunhill as far as I'm concerned... it's a dance music CD.'

BMG handled all design and production for the CD inhouse, but as far as Spence goes, what Chelsea gets up to off her own bat - 'she's a smoker' - is up to her.

DJ Chelsea is no stranger to Auckland club Calibre, and on opening the latest issue of Pavement magazine, you can find an advertisement for that club that closely replicates the shape, look and feel of a blue Dunhill cigarette packet. Coincidental synchronicity? Or deliberate flouting of the law?

Trish Fraser of watchdog group ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) has no doubts about what's going on. She appeared in a 60 Minutes piece on Sunday 9 August on TV ONE that exposed tobacco companies in the US as knowing that their product was lethal and contained addictive nicotine, yet denying it for years and continuing to suck in the public.

Locally, Fraser was shown holding up a copy of Re:Mix, saying, 'We think it's owned by Rothmans' and claiming that the colours used constitute subliminal advertising. Despite this, Fraser admits that it may be difficult to prove that the overt and widespread use of the brand's look and feel constitutes advertising. 'The law is quite loose,' she says.

Regardless, ASH have made a complaint through the Public Health Unit, Auckland Healthcare to the Ministry of Health about the Remix pages. The Ministry is currently making inquiries and evaluating the case before making a decision on whether or not to prosecute.

Most prosecutions over the last couple of years have been for sales to minors. There have been just two prosecutions for illegal advertising since 1990, and the penalties are severe.

An importer or distributor caught breaking the law can be fined up to $50,000, while anyone publishing such an advertisement (and the scope of 'publishing' is pretty wide) can be nailed for up to $10,000.

Also being investigated is brand placement in venues, as the law only allows point of sale tobacco advertising, with that limited to pricing. Any large signs in bars and venues are probably flouting the law.

However, even if what's going on is dodgy, such sly use of look and feel may fall outside the letter of the law. And remedying that situation may take a long time (look how long it took to get smokefree legislation through the Parliamentary process).

What does seem likely is that tobacco companies may withdraw from such promotion in order to avoid embarrassment. After all, despite the huge increase in young New Zealand women taking up smoking, and a general 11% uptake at tertiary level, tobacco companies continually maintain that they sell to 'informed adults', and that any marketing is designed to evoke brand-switching rather than to attract new consumers.

Then again, they may choose to brazen it out. After all, there's a serious lack of sponsorship dollars out there, and the millions in the pockets of the tobacco companies would find a ready welcome in some pockets.

Or maybe not. The morality of taking money for tobacco promotion is now under debate in the dance community. Countering the claims of mere 'brand representation' are those who take the stance that 'if we can block out advertising and it doesn't affect us, why does Coke spend a gazillion dollars on it a year?'

'This whole discourse,' wrote one contributor to an on-line discussion group, 'has been so interesting because it really draws the line... who is content to let a really corporate culture use the 'credibility' of dance music to sell its image? I'm not totally opposed to corporate sponsorship point blank, but... cigarettes are a symbol of total corporate abuse of the consumer. The single biggest advertising scam in the history of humanity.'

I wrote to Ant Smith at Rothmans asking him whether he was the 'Ant @ Dunhill' referred to in the credits of Re:Mix. I also asked whether he and his company were aware that Re:Mix, DJ Chelsea, and Calibre were using the look and feel of the Dunhill brand for promotional purposes, and if so, would Rothmans be requesting that they desist from this blatant infringement of branding copyrights.

However, by press time I had received no response to these questions, or to those asking whether Rothmans provided sponsorship for point-of-sale presence at dance parties or to Re:Mix whether my fax or phone calls.

Will anyone get their butts kicked? Will smoke turn to flame? Check out the Re:Mix discussion list, React (join at http://www.remix.co.nz/react), or check back here in a month when we delve further into what's going on with sponsorship and branding.

Mark Cubey

Adddendum for all you male smokers. 'Statistically significant" research from the Boston University School of Medicine has revealed that smoking could reduce the size of a man's erect penis. Smoking affects the penis in the same way that it does the heart: damaging the blood vessels, inhibiting blood flow and effecting elastin, the substance believed to govern a man's ability to have an erection. Oh well, there's always viagra.

This article, slightly edited, first appeared in the Spring issue (August/Sept) of Wellington Styles. To get a copy, send a A4 SAE with appropriate postage to Box 9290, Wellington. Comments to the same address, or to mcubey@actrix.gen.nz