The campaign, which is running in national newspapers and magazines, features a print-out of an email obtained by JTI in which an unnamed official at the Department of Health requests an impact assessment from an Australian counterpart of that country's move to ban branded packaging.
The email – which was obtained under Freedom of Information laws – states that the main difficulty for the pro-plain tobacco packaging lobby is that "there isn't any hard evidence to show that it works".
The line is highlighted and JTI's strapline simply says: "We couldn't have put it better ourselves".
The email was sent in May 2011 from an official in the Tobacco Policy Team at the UK government's Department of Health to a counterpart in Australia's Department of Health, under the subject line "Plain packaging cost analysis".
The email says that the UK government is considering introducing plain packaging – that is, unbranded packaging – for tobacco products.
It asks whether the Australian government – which became the world's first country to introduce non-branded packaging late last year – has drafted any kind of cost analysis or impact assessment for the move.
JTI UK magaging director Jorge da Motta said: "We are using this media campaign to demonstrate that in 2011 even the Department of Health accepted that these? proposals are not supported by any hard evidence.
"We hope common sense will prevail and that the Government will disregard this proposal, before embarking on a process which will do nothing more than deprive the Treasury of much needed revenue and make hundreds of millions of pounds for the criminals who manufacture, distribute and sell illegal tobacco products.
"We have always argued that plain packaging will not prevent children from smoking, but enforcing existing initiatives such as 'No ID, No Sale', punishing those who buy tobacco on the behalf of children and cutting the illegal supply chain, can work."
Mike Ridgway, who acts as a spokesman for a group of packaging companies involved in producing packaging for the tobacco industry, told Packaging News that the firms "fully support" the view that there is no evidence to suggest that plain packaging reduces rates of smoking.
He said the companies "have consistently stated that with no evidence the Government should drop the idea and concentrate on other forms of helping young people avoid the smoking habit by better education , information and cultural awareness.
"The results from Australia , which introduced plain packaging last December , indicate that smoking levels are virtually unchanged and in Germany with no excessive regulation the uptake of smoking amongst young people has significantly declined."
