A series of fashion photo shoots showing models puffing cigarettes or holding cigars is under investigation due to potential violation of Australian Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act.

Fiona Sharkie, executive president of Quit Victoria stated that photos made by fashion apparel brand Ellery and online magazine Tangent were passed to the Department of Health for consequent investigation and might result in fines. Under the given act, any image that promotes or aimed to promote smoking is prohibited. “It is a huge disappointment that such a famed brand is promoting its products together with deadly product that results in severe health complication in half of its consumers,” Ms Sharkie added.

Other fashion pictures, which are not covered by the act, since they are coming from other countries, include photo shoots by Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier and Marc Jacobs. ”I simply don’t understand why they think that these images would not be attractive without cigarettes,” Ms Sharkie mentioned.

Recently, although advertisements of tobacco are prohibited in many countries, and anti-smoking lifestyles are aggressively promoted in public, fashion industry keeps using tobacco products as part of fashion photo shoots, as symbols of provocative or glamorous ideas.

World-famous designer Tom Ford was the first to open the trend in 2004 with a glam photo shoot of trendy young lads for Gucci: glossy hair, chic playboy suits, drinking whisky and puffing fat cigars. Jean Paul Gaultier has also used cigars and cigarettes on both the designer’s women’s and men’s wear shows. In addition, Marc Jacobs recently shocked anti-smoking advocates when he hired Kate Moss to light up expertly at Louis Vuitton catwalk. “It might be part of high fashion creative process,” admits Graeme Lewsey, executive director of the Melbourne Fashion Week. ”It is not used to promote smoking as a lifestyle choice, but may be there’s a very thin line.”

During the previous editions of Australian Fashion Week, Graeme Lewsey and Simon Lock, the founder of the fashion event, initiated an industry-wide call to discourage fashion images containing smoking scenes. Tobacco companies were not accepted as sponsors of the event. “Designers sometimes forget about today’s reality, in an effort to create a mood of that era of vintage when people used to smoke freely, so it could be the case here,” Mr Lewsey added.

But it could also be a prosecutable violation. Minter Ellison Lawyers senior partner Peter Bartlett noted: “Now it comes down to offense, as when people make images containing smoking and it seems to glamorize the habit, it could be regarded as breach of the legislation.”

Sydney fashion brand Ellery is considered one of Australian fashion’s most desirable and exclusive labels. The opening page of the brand’s fall 2011 campaign includes an image of a young and beautiful model smoking. When the potential breach of the law was found, author of the collection, Kym Ellery was in Paris and was not available to comment. Nevertheless, spokesperson Emma Van Haandel made an immediate statement that the photograph willl be removed from the catalog.

By Steve Shepherd, Staff Writer. Copyright © 2011 Cigarette-Store.org. All rights reserved.