They added that as smoking was not a health condition, being asked if you were a smoker was, therefore, not a health question.
[...]
The ASA noted that Asda had followed the BMA and ABI guidelines in considering smoking to be a lifestyle choice
The ASA case in question revolves around whether Asda, in advertising life insurance with "no health questions asked" can get away with asking potential clients if they smoke or not.
Here in the real world, where smokers are regularly discriminated against on the basis of not only their own health (NHS costs,) but others (second hand and the fabled third hand smoke) it's hard to see how "do you smoke" cannot be construed as a health question.
One does, however, wonder what other "lifestyle choice" questions the nice people at Asda also ask, since the adjudication is strangely quiet.
- Have you had sex with a man, or anyone who's had sex with a man, in the past 60 years?
- Have you ever consumed excess ethanol?
- Do you religiously eat your five-a-day?
- Do you regularly use sun factor 5,000 when going outdoors in daylight?
- Do you own, or have you ever owned, a mobile phone?
I'm sure the list is, if not endless, quite large.
Well at least we now know you can tell your doctor to mind his own business when he asks how many you smoke, since it has no bearing on your health whatsoever; it's simply a lifestyle choice.
I see no one ever comments. Pleased to be the first.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that your blog is bollocks.
"Pleased to be the first"
ReplyDeleteYou clearly haven't looked hard enough then.
The fact that your profile currently states that you're in advertising shows that you have ulterior motives for posting your comment.
Perhaps if you and your like spent less time on blogs, and more time not misleading customers, there'd be less of a need to point out your failings?
Wait, so if I am a man, and I have sex with a woman, then I would have to answer "yes" to "have you ever had sex with a man or someone who's had sex with a man?", correct? Because the woman I had sex with MUST have had sex with a man, seeing as she had sex with ME, and I am a man...
ReplyDeleteWell I was partaking in a bit of hyperbole there, but in the US, females who've had sex with 'gay' men are deferred for a year from the encounter. They don't seem to discriminate against any other men who've had sex with that woman however.
ReplyDelete