ABSTRACT
Many tobacco company websites assert that the smoker is a well-informed selector of a product that she knows contains an addictive substance that might cause her ill health. Theirs is a wholly rational consumer, weighing up the costs and benefits of choosing to smoke. In both the industry and public health accounts, the rational consumer is privileged. In Australian public health messaging around tobacco, the smoker is much more frequently addressed as someone who can respond to persuasion, who can be reached by health information. The tobacco industry smoker is largely imagined in the terms of rational, if hedonistic, calculus, making an informed decision to smoke after having weighed up the drawbacks of so doing. The research confirmed the tobacco industry's mindless consumer in its criticisms of packaging enticements, such as colours and appealing graphics, admonishing the industry for enticing smokers in, with appealing colour combinations, then invoked its own mindless consumer.
