Background: In 2006, an investigation by The Age newspaper revealed that tobacco companies have been financing Victorian hotels to develop beer gardens and rooftop terraces. The funding to create outdoor smoking areas was in response to the introduction of smokefree legislation in bars and clubs on 1 July 2007 in Victoria. These arrangements also included an agreement that the particular tobacco company's cigarette brands would be exclusively sold at the venue. The story in The Age quoted a prominent Victorian hotelier explaining that the tobacco industry was using their public relations budget to target venues with open-air spaces to circumvent the smokefree bans.

Discussion: We will outline the role we played in the investigation into tobacco industry payments to Victorian hotels, and examine the key advocacy messages framing our public comments following the publication of the front-page story. The messages focussed on the anticipated behaviour of the tobacco industry to undermine smokefree legislation, the marketing tactics employed by the tobacco industry to target the 18-to-25-year-old demographic and the increasing reliance on ‘sponsorship' arrangements to secure a tobacco industry presence in licensed venues.

Conclusion: A response to this issue from the Victorian Government indicates that they do not believe that this practice is in breach of the sponsorship provisions of the Tobacco Act 1987. We will outline the changes we believe should be made to the Tobacco Act 1987 to remedy this situation including the type of tobacco industry sponsorship activities that should be captured, and the policy rationale for this.