Letter: Holy smoke

Where is Ash Scotland chief executive Sheila Duffy's evidence of "cigarettes having pride of place in all our shops" (Letters, 13 September)? Big stores keep them in separate kiosks away from main merchandise, while in smaller ones they are usually behind the till area.

It is proper to protect impressionable young minds from unhealthy influence, but I've never seen any youngster gazing at a shop cigarette display.

In any case, the whole argument for banning display is a reversal of logic. Advertising succeeds by associating the product with pleasurable emotions (sell the sizzle, not the sausage), which is why newspaper, magazine and public billboard cigarette advertisements with such images ("You're never alone with a Strand") are no longer allowed.

Permitted display consists of rows of packets proclaiming "SMOKING KILLS", which is precisely the sort of influence to which impressionable minds should be exposed.

There is therefore a clear case for not only enlarging display areas but drawing attention to them by means of banners with the same message.

Robert Dow

Ormiston Road

Tranent, East Lothian