After Big Tobacco was revealed to be behind the campaign, health groups have called on federal authorities to pull ads claiming plain cigarette packaging “won’t work so why do it”.

Some documents that were sneaked out to The Sydney Morning Herald show that the tobacco industry is funding the campaign to stop plain packaging being introduced.

Going ahead with this plan they are also employing the public relations firm to run the campaign giving approval as to who will do media interviews and managing the strategy for lobbying government.

Todd Harper, VicHealth chief executive, called for immediate action by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission “to shut down this dishonest campaign”.

He added that the information which was leaked out displayed “how far the tobacco industry was prepared to go to buy the outcome that it wanted”. He feared that if this campaign became successful then more people will die.

The paper trail that got leaked shows the mastermind which has Chris Argent, Philip Morris’s director of corporate affairs.