"Six-year-old children attracted to cigarette adverts"

The Metro rehashes some of the most outrageously fraudulent research ever:

Children as young as six are falling for cigarette adverts as tobacco companies use ‘colourful and slick’ packaging to entice them, according to a cancer charity. They were drawn to the packets ‘without having a full understanding of how deadly the product is’, Cancer Research UK said.

Youngsters aged six to 11 were asked to describe what appealed to them about brand packaging. "It makes you feel like you’re in a wonderland of happiness," said one. Other responses – which were filmed by the charity for an anti-smoking campaign – included: "The pictures actually look quite nice. Ice cubes and mint", "It reminds me of a Ferrari", "Is that the royal sign?" and "Yeah. Pink, pink, pink".

Ho hum.

I thought that cigarette and tobacco advertising had been banned years ago? In any event, like the vast majority of smokers, I have had children of my own, and I can faithully report that none of them ever has showed any interest in smoking in general or tobacco packaging/advertising in particular, apart from the obligatory second-hand anti-smoking lectures faithfully delivered by my little lass. Who also tries to lecture me that it is better to take the train than to drive a car because of global warming, but who is first to ask whether she can be driven to school by car when it's raining (it's a five or six minute walk).

Of my two adult children, one of them became a social smoker at the age of 18 or 19 and the other one genuinely does not like smoke or smoking (I'm sure he's tried it). For sure, four children is not a representative sample, but I suspect it's a lot more representative than CRUK's sample.