Australian students handed ‘wellbeing shots’ made by subsidiary of British American Tobacco – as experts fear new front in health wars

A Sydney bus carrying an ad for Ryde ‘wellness shots’, made by a subsidiary of British American Tobacco. Photograph: Natasha May

As students at the University of Sydney prepared for their end-of-year exams in late 2023, a trio in brightly coloured jumpsuits pulled up to the campus in a van, armed with tiny bottles labelled “Ryde wellbeing shots”.

They approached students as they studied on the campus lawns, asking them to share their strategies to cope with exam stress and filming their responses for TikTok.