Australia's plain packaging cigarette laws have received global attention thanks to a starring role in a segment of John Oliver's satirical television news program, which skewered big tobacco companies and explained how they attack laws designed to reduce cigarette consumption and protect public health.

Sunday's episode of Last Week Tonight also presented a tongue-in-cheek alternative to cigarette mascots like the Marlboro Man or Camel Joe called 'Jeff the Diseased Lung' - a cartoon character whose image quickly went viral, along with the hashtag promoted on the show, #JeffWeCan.

Oliver began the segment by describing tobacco as an "ageing product that's decreasing in popularity and yet somehow it can't stop making money ... it's basically the agricultural equivalent of U2."