John Oliver and his alternative to the cigarette mascots, Jeff the Diseased Lung. Source: Supplied
AUSTRALIA’S plain packaging cigarette laws have come in for attention in US talk show host John Oliver’s satirical television news program.
The segment on Sunday’s episode of This Week Tonight targeted big tobacco companies and explained to viewers how those companies opposed laws designed to reduce cigarette use — and how Australia has taken the companies on.
This Week Tonight also introduced a tongue-in-cheek alternative to cigarette mascots like the Marlboro Man called ‘Jeff the Diseased Lung’ — a cartoon character which went viral, along with the hashtag promoted on the show, #JeffWeCan.
The hashtag was trending in both the US and Australia.
last week tonight
Oliver began the segment by describing tobacco as an “ageing product that’s decreasing in popularity and yet somehow it can’t stop making money … it’s basically the agricultural equivalent of U2.”
He told his audience Australians could now only buy packets with health warnings, and described images like “the toe-tag on a corpse, the cancerous mouth, the nightmarish eyeball and the diseased lung … I’m pretty sure I would find a healthy lung disgusting.”
“Perhaps unsurprisingly, since this law was implemented, total consumption of tobacco and cigarettes in Australia fell to record lows, and nightmares about eyeballs have risen to record highs,” he said.
It’s not the first time Oliver has taken on Australian politics. In June last year, he took aim at Prime Minister Tony Abbott — and he didn’t miss.
#JeffWeCan pic.twitter.com/MJ7GvnywDx
— John Oliver (@iamjohnoliver) February 16, 2015
Originally published as US talk show host takes on our smoking laws