World No Tobacco Day 2013: Are you being manipulated?

Every year on 31 May, WHO and its various partners celebrate World No Tobacco Day where they highlight the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to reduce toba

By: Nirmalya Dutta | | Updated: June 11, 2014 6:42 pm

WHO-Free-yourself-Collage Every year on 31 May, WHO and its various partners celebrate World No Tobacco Day where they highlight the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. The theme of this year’s campaign is ‘Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship’. It really is a burning issue right now and the authorities in India are also hell-bent on banning tobacco from the TVs, cinemas and other influential forms of media. Our authorities believe that by curtailing tobacco from mainstream media, youngsters who are particularly impressionable at that tender age will avoid taking up smoking. Also Read - “Vaccines do not equal zero Covid": WHO calls for sustained efforts to control virus transmission

The WHO estimates that the tobacco industry spends billions around the year in advertising, promotion and sponsorship. In countries like ours where direct advertising is banned, the tobacco industry usually adopts a technique called ‘surrogate advertising’ in which they promote other products to drill the brand name into the consumer. The long-term goal is a total ban on direct and indirect advertising, promotion and sponsorship, as provided in guidelines to Article 13 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, can substantially reduce tobacco consumption and protect people, particularly the youth, from industry marketing tactics. To be effective, bans must be complete and apply to all marketing categories. Also Read - WHO chief self quarantines after coming in contact with COVID-19 infected person

The problem is the sheer positioning linking the tobacco products to success, coolness and glamour. The devastating results are there to see with tobacco use linked to heart disease, cancer, lung disease, hypertension, erectile dysfunction and other non-communicable diseases. In fact, it’s strange that despite its well-known ill-effects tobacco usage still remains as popular as ever. Also Read - This is how smoking, tobacco use make you more vulnerable to COVID-19

In many countries, tobacco is promoted wherever the youth can be influenced – the movies, on the Internet, in fashion magazines and at music and sports events. These ads also help to reassure current smokers and create a climate where smoking is seen as normal social behaviour. This has created an illusion that tobacco is just an ordinary consumer product, not one that kills half its users and maims almost all of them. There’s enough evidence to that adolescents who are exposed to tobacco use at a young age are likely to stay hooked for the rest of their lives.

Therefore, it is important that enforceable measures be put into place to ban all forms of advertising including television, radio, print publications and billboards. There is also a need to ensure that indirect forms of advertising, such as brand stretching, point of sale display of product and tobacco industry-sponsored CSR (corporate social responsibility) programmes, are also addressed. The battle against tobacco is one we can’t afford to lose; the lives of millions of people depend on it.

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Published : May 14, 2013 9:17 am | Updated:June 11, 2014 6:42 pm

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