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This submission supports the proposed amendments to the Tobacco Control Act, highlighting the devastating global consequences of tobacco consumption and the need for comprehensive tobacco advertising bans. It emphasizes the power of advertising in promoting tobacco products and the importance of finding a balance between trade and public health.
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Submission to the Portfolio Committee on HealthAmendments to: The Tobacco Products Control Act Adv Patricia Lambert Director: International Legal Consortium 6th May 2008
Preamble to the FCTC “Reflecting the concern of the international community about the devastating worldwide health, social, economic and environmental consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke;”
The Epidemic is Escalating In 2000: • 1 in 10 deaths linked to tobacco • 4.9 million people die each year from tobacco use • 13,400 people die each day • 560 people die each hour By 2030: • Expected to be leading cause of death • 10 million people a year will die from tobacco use • 70% of those deaths will occur in developing countries
British American Tobacco “We should not be depressed simply because the total free world market appears to be declining. Within the total market, there are areas of strong growth: particularly in Asia and Africa … It is an exciting prospect…”
No ordinary product The only legal product that, when used according to the manufacturers’ instructions kills and makes ill more than half of the people who use it.
An ordinary industry Like all other industries, the tobacco industry has one duty and one duty only: To make as much profit as it can for its shareholders
In 2006 Judge Gladys Kessler of the US wrote: “This case is about an industry … that survives, and profits, from selling a highly addictive product which causes diseases that lead to a staggering number of deaths per year, an immeasurable amount of human suffering and economic loss, and has a profound effect on our national healthcare system.”
Finding the balance • Legal, but lethal product • The power to regulate trade - Section 32 • The obligation to protect health - Section 24 • The balancing of rights and obligations
Support the Department of Health’s proposed amendments
The Power of Advertising[PMG note : photo’s has been removed]
FCTC Requirements Article 13: Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship Parties should enact a comprehensive ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
Two Types of Advertising • Direct • Indirect • In response of partial advertising bans tobacco companies shift their advertising expenditures to non-restricted media
Direct advertising • Billboards • Electronic- TV, radio, films, Internet • Print media-newspapers, magazines, leaflets, direct mail • Point-of-sale (POS)
Point-of-Sale (POS) ‘Power wall’ in Canada[PMG note : photo’s has been removed] Source: Polay R. More than meets the eye: on the importance of retail cigarette merchandising. Tobacco Control. 2007;16:270-274.
Extreme example of POS advertising[PMG note : photo’s has been removed] Retail store in the Philippines
BAT’s POS opportunity “So in a market where no promotion of cigarettes is allowed, you could expect to see the following ... more efficient use of the trade, and in-store communications, i.e. permanent merchandising material and point of sale temporary material (e.g. stickers). The aim is to create a better impact—to let the retail environment communicate the values of the product more effectively.” Pedlow G. Marketing of cigarettes in countries with total Ad bans: notes on conversation with Paul Bingham. 1991. Available from: http://www.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/batco/html/13200/13217
Effectiveness of POS Advertising • Cigarette package displays increase children’s perception that cigarettes are easy to obtain, normal to use, and facilitate their recall of brand names.2 • Nine out of ten 10-12 year olds in Western Australia correctly identified brand names as cigarettes.3 • 1 Source: Smoke Free Nova Scotia, Restrictions on the Retail Display of Tobacco Products (2004). • 2 Wakefield M, Germain D, Durkin S, Henriksen L. An experimental study of effects on schoolchildren of exposure to point-of-sale cigarette advertising and pack displays. Health Education Research. 2006;21(3):338-47. • 3 Donovan RJ, Jancey J, Jones S. Tobacco point of sale advertising increases positive brand user imagery. Tobacco Control 2002; 11:191-194.
Brand-Stretching “Opportunities should be explored by all companies so as to find non-tobacco products and other services which can be used to communicate the brand or house name, together with their essential visual identities. …to ensure that cigarette lines can be effectively publicised when all direct forms of communication are denied.” British American Tobacco (BAT).
Directly advertised brand-stretching[PMG note : photo’s has been removed] Advertising Marlboro clothing, Malaysia
Marlboro Clothing[PMG note : photo’s has been removed] Marlboro clothing store- Czech Republic (2001)
Marlboro trademark on child’s car, Ukraine [PMG note : photo’s has been removed]
Packaging [Focus on] “areas of opportunity which do not rely on conventional media", such as "new types and forms of packaging that can act as a means of communication" … Phillip Morris. Marketing new products in a restrictive environment. June 1990. Bates No. 2044762173-2364.
‘Special edition’ packs in South Africa, 2007 [PMG note : photo’s has been removed]
Camel No. 9: targeting women and girls, 2007 [PMG note : photo’s has been removed] Accompanying give-away items
Product placement in movies Association between Exposure to Smoking in Movies and Adolescent Smoking Source: Hanewinkel R, Sargent JD. Exposure to Smoking in Popular Contemporary Movies and Youth Smoking in Germany. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2007; 32(6): 466–473.
The effect of tobacco promotions on youth consumption Percentage of students who are smokers versus number of cigarette promotional items (CPIs) owned n = 1265 Smokers = more than 100 cigarettes, lifetime Source: Sargenta JD, Daltona M, Beach M. Exposure to cigarette promotions and smoking uptake in adolescents: evidence of a dose-response relation. Tobacco Control 2000;9:163-168.
Corporate Social Responsibility “The potential positive outcomes of adopting programs of this nature [socially responsible programs] may be . . . a more sophisticated understanding by government regulators of the needs/behaviors of industry. For example, a program to discourage teens from smoking (an adult decision) might prevent or delay further regulation of the tobacco industry.” Source: Landman A, Ling PM, and Glantz, SA. Tobacco Industry Youth Smoking Prevention Programs: Protecting the Industry and Hurting Tobacco Control. Am J Public Health. 2002 June; 92(6): 917–930. Available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1447482
BAT calendar advertising its CSR projects in Mauritius[PMG note : photo’s has been removed]
Corporate Social Responsibility The industry uses CSR: • To purchase credibility • To deflect people’s attention to the deadly nature of the products that they make and sell
BAT’s CORA ROADMAP 2000 • Isolate the anti-smoking movement • Win over public opinion
Understanding Stakeholders – Research Model • Identify stakeholders and understand the level and nature of their influence • Classified according to three criteria: - Their impact of business - Their hostility/sympathy towards tobacco - Their willingness to change their views
Understanding Stakeholders – Research Model • Decision-makers: Individuals and institutions whose decisions will have a direct and immediate impact on our ability to achieve profitable growth over the next five years • Influencers: Individuals and institutions who have no immediate impact on our ability to achieve profitable growth but who, nonetheless, exert influence over the views and activities of decision-makers or other influencers
The Ultimate Aim of CSR • …To (get stakeholders to) support BAT’s achievements and standards of business integrity.”
World Health Organization “ Socially responsible initiatives, so called by transnational tobacco companies, sit side by side with their continued involvement in aggressive advertising campaigns … and their attempts to actively undermine the tobacco control activities of the World Health Organization” WHO 2004
Industry Youth Smoking Prevention Initatives [PMG note : photo’s has been removed] “It's the law. We do not sell tobacco to persons under 18.” – Billboard in Moscow, Russia
TTC youth smoking prevention: calculated public relations campaigns • Undertaken for public relations purposes1 • Enhance the appeal of smoking to teenagers by framing smoking as an ‘adult’ activity2 • May detract governments from pursuing effective regulatory measures • 1Landman A, Ling PM, Glantz S. Tobacco industry youth smoking prevention programs: protecting the industry and hurting tobacco control. American Journal of Public Health. 2002; 92(6):917-30. • 2 Teenage Research Unlimited. Counter-Tobacco Advertising Exploratory Summary Report January – March, 1999 • 3 DeBon M, Klesges R. Adolescents’ perceptions about smoking prevention strategies: a comparison of the programs of the American Lung Association and the Tobacco Institute. Tobacco Control.1996; 5:19-25.
RJR secret document: targeting 13-24 year olds “Project LF is a wider circumference non-menthol cigarette targeted at younger adult male smoker (primarily 13-24 year old male Marlboro smokers). This product is also being explored as a CAMEL line extension…”
Advertising of a youth-targeted brand[PMG note : photo’s has been removed] Poster for I-gen, India 2007
[PMG note : photo’s has been removed] I-gen pack I-pod
The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Expressly prohibits ‘industry interference’ in public health policy FCTC Art. 5.3
The international experience has shown… The only way to protect the public from the effects of tobacco advertising is to regulate it strictly by banning it in all its forms
Growing numbers of governments completely ban and enforce bans on direct and indirect advertising and promotion
Jurisdictions with (virtually) complete tobacco APS bans • Australia • European Union • Finland • France • Hong Kong • Iceland • New Zealand • Norway • Sweden • Singapore • South Africa • Thailand • UK
Australia’s POS restrictions allow trade publications [PMG note : photo’s has been removed] Retail trade publication in Australia, w/convincing sales data
After the product display ban in Saskachewan, Canada[PMG note : photo’s has been removed] Before After
[PMG note : photo’s has been removed] Supermarket in Reykjavik, Iceland after product displays were banned Source: Smoke Free Nova Scotia, Restrictions on the Retail Display of Tobacco Products (2004).
You will hear … • South Africa has enough tobacco control legislation… • This is moving too quickly… • The industry was not consulted… • It can wait until we have dealt with other important health issues… • The stuff that the anti-tobacco lobby has is old stuff – we have changed….
Can we wait? • BAT website reveals that BAT is specifically researching and targeting the black community which it refers to as “black diamonds” in a cynical bid to increase its sale of tobacco products Feb 2008