Hands Off Our Packs campaign video pokes fun at government

Fri 22nd June, 2012

Opponents of plain packaging of tobacco have launched an online video entitled Plain Packaging – No Minister!.

Coinciding with the government White Paper on Civil Service reform, the video was produced by the Hands Off Our Packs campaign team.

It features a conversation between a fictional health minister and his chief civil servant about the desirability of plain packaging.

It also includes a spoof “partly political broadcast” featuring the minister, the Rt Hon Peter Perfect MP. 

The video finishes with a message inviting people to visit the Hands Off Our Packs website and sign the campaign’s petition against plain packaging.

Hands Off Our Packs campaigner Angela Harbutt said: 

“Plain packaging is the latest attempt to denormalise a legal product and stigmatise millions of adult consumers. 

“Pro plain pack lobbyists have spent large sums of public money trying to influence politicians to support the measure.

"Our video reflects the widely held view that politicians, including ministers, are increasingly puppets of taxpayer funded bodies and unelected civil servants in Whitehall. 

“We urge ministers to think for themselves and listen to all stakeholders, not just the powerful tobacco control industry."  

Plain Packaging – No Minister! was directed by Carlos Boellinger, a filmmaker from Brighton, and his company Visual Dreams Production. 

The closing date for submissions to the public consultation on plain packaging is July 10th.

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