TOBACCO INDUSTRY ADVERTISING, PROMOTION, & SPONSORSHIP

“Does tobacco advertising actually lead to increased tobacco consumption?” This was just one of the questions Johanna Birckmayer addressed during her “Advertising, Promotion, and Sponsorship” presentation on Friday.

While all other lectures on Friday focused on counter-advertising, social marketing & strategic communication for tobacco control, Birckmayer focused on how the Industry uses advertising and marketing methods to normalize and glamorize tobacco use, mislead the public, target specific groups, and weaken tobacco control campaigns. She informed participants that there is scientific evidence to show that tobacco advertising does in fact lead to increased consumption by enticing young people to smoke, encouraging smokers to smoke more and decreasing smokers’ motivation to quit.

Birckmayer exposed industry tactics such as brand-stretching to clothing, objects, stores, and even services; targeting youth; targeting women by portraying cigarettes as “slim, sexy, & liberating;” and targeting the poor by associating affluence with cigarettes. Birckmayer stressed that countries implement comprehensive bans on all tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship because the Industry is “very good at changing their tactics” to circumvent partial bans that are put in place. The session ended with participants sharing experiences from their own countries of tobacco advertising tactics including product placement in movies, clothing lines manufactured by tobacco companies and industry sponsored events held exclusively for “smokers and their friends.”

-Maggie Hawthorne, Institute for Global Tobacco Control

MAKING THE CASE FOR SMOKE-FREE ENVIRONMENTS

• “Why do we need a regulation on smoke-free public places anyway?”


• “Won’t we lose lots of business and tax revenue if we don’t make some accommodation for smokers”


• “It’s an election year and I don’t want to be confrontational! So, how can I accommodate everyone”


• “What do smoke-free public places regulations in New York and elsewhere have to do with our situation”

These were only a few of the questions that role-playing “Governors” Alejandro Madrazo (Mexico), Sergei Frolov (Russia), Chai Kritiyapichatkul (Thailand) and Debby Sy (Philippines) threw at their role-playing constituents who were trying to make the case for a totally smoke-free public places regulation. During Thursday’s role play group exercise four sub-groups of participants were given 10 minutes each to “make the case for smoke-free environments” to their respective “Governors.” The exchanges between the presenters their Governor were both challenging and lively, and there were many lessons learned including:

• Ten minutes with the Governor is a significant opportunity.


• Meetings with the Governor are almost always controlled by the Governor, not by the participants. It is a mistake to pretend otherwise.


• The Governor may not always be interested in what we have to say. We need to learn as much as possible about what the Governor is really interested in before the meeting and prepare accordingly.


• Listening carefully to what the Governor is saying and letting that guide the direction of the conversation can be quite important. We need to be careful not to over-focus on “getting through” all of our presentation and miss other opportunities.


• Not everything can be resolved in 10 minutes. Creating and taking advantage of opportunities for follow-up are important.


• Timing is more important than time!

-Steve Tamplin, Institute for Global Tobacco Control

SURVEILLANCE OF THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY

On a day packed with sessions discussing monitoring and surveillance of: tobacco use, the tobacco epidemic, and policy development Stella Bialous highlighted the importance of tobacco industry surveillance reminding us that the Industry plays a key role in the epidemic and that understanding their tactics is essential to the development of effective tobacco control.

Bialous explained that: “as unique as each of our countries are the strategies of the tobacco industry from country to country are very similar,” with their main goals being growth and profit, protecting market freedoms the industry and the smoker, and promoting a good public image.

During the session participants learned how to utilize the Industries own documents to expose their tactics and how to perform industry surveillance in their countries. Bialous ended by reminding the participants that the biggest challenge is not the surveillance of the industry but how to use the information gathered to achieve your goals.

-Maggie Hawthorne, Institute for Global Tobacco Control

PARTICIPATING IN A HISTORIC DAY

In one year, ACT, a tobacco control nongovernmental organization in Brazil, went from a one person organization to having representatives nationwide, explains Paula Johns, Executive Director of ACT in a press conference Wednesday in Manhattan. Johns shared her triumph in growing ACT with the help of funding from the Bloomberg Initiative and noted that while significant progress has been made in Brail and elsewhere, there is still a long way to go.

The participants were captivated during the press conference as Johns recognized the work tobacco control advocates have begun is proof of what can be accomplished in the future. Her opinion on what it will take for continued success? “...political will, leadership, and commitment from governments and civil society, as well as with continued hard work and resources.”

Johns described Wednesday's announcement of $500 million in funding from the Bloomberg and the Gates Foundations as “a historic moment for tobacco control... with one recognized global leader joining another to work together on saving millions of lives...we can be confident that there is no way we can lose this battle.”

LESSONS IN SMOKE-FREE POLICIES

“Educate then legislate!” explains Cynthia Hallett, Executive Director of the Americans for Non-Smokers Rights, as she shared her over 20 years of experience developing, implementing and enforcing smoke-free policies in the US with participants. Her experience has taught her that an educational campaign accompanying a smoke-free policy is critical. She noted that one of the major goals of smoke-free policies is to change social norms about smoking. Tobacco control advocates and policymakers should be thinking about how to educate the public before and after a law is passed.

Participants shared their experiences in helping Mexico City and several states in Argentina go smoke-free. As the participants noted, whether the push for smoke-free policies was from inside or outside the government, campaigns and other grassroots efforts played an important role during policy development and implementation. Hallett agreed, “a strong educational component is going to make everything else easier.”

WHAT ABOUT YOUTH?

Kathy Staats and Morgan Wittman, two U.S. college students, are a breath of fresh air -- literally. The two students-- bright, articulate, hopeful, committed-- presented Friday's final panel on youth advocacy, ending a whirlwind week. Participants listened to the women outline how U.S. youth get involved in the movement as students. Then, they are groomed to become effective activists. When asked how many countries had similar efforts, only four hands shot up. A starting point.

Around the globe, public health officials know the battle ahead lies with the youth. Even in the U.S., where smoking by teenagers fell sharply between 1997 and 2003, these gains are leveling off. And in some countries, smoking among youth is soaring. This is the movement's new battleground. "I am charged up about this," says Niki Shrestha M.D., junior public health professional, Tobacco Free Initiative, WHO's South-East Asia Regional Office, in New Delhi. "The young people are the future."

INDONESIA

Widyastuti Soerojo, Msc

Chief, Tobacco Control Support Center

Indonesian Public Health Association

Jakarta, Indonesia

"I am from Indonesia. We are the only country in Asia that did not sign the FCTC. So we are behind other Asian countries. Now, two of three males are smokers-- about 66%. That is very high. Smoking prevalence in females is up from 1.3% in 2001 to 4.5% in 2005."

"In reference to youth, what is striking is not only the prevalence of smoking in the young people, but the increase of smoking initiation (when people start smoking). For those under 19-years-old, that rate increased from 64% in 1995 to 68.8% in 2001 to 78.2% in 2004. This information comes from the National Socioeconomic Survey, so it is very reliable."

"We don't have any laws to control tobacco products. Secondly, because we don't have laws, there is almost no regulation. Third, the population is increasing. Together, these factors are attracting industry to Indonesia. They are aggressively marketing. They are stimulating competition to become the market leader. The most effective thing we can do is have policies. So we are focusing on laws. But we haven't been able to get our bills into the national legislative agenda. We are trying, but it is very difficult."

INDIA

Ram Vashist

Head of Public Health

Government of Delhi

New Delhi, India

"Tobacco use among young people is a major concern in India. We are seeing more and more young people becoming addicted to tobacco. And they are using many diverse products. They are chewing tobacco in the form of many smokeless products as well as smoking bidis (an indigenous, leaf-rolled unfiltered cigarette which uses coarse tobacco) and cigarettes. On the whole, we are seeing the number of people using non-smoking tobacco products increasing and this is fast emerging as a bigger problem."

"Chewing tobacco and smoking bidis is more popular among the lower socio-economic group, whereas, people of higher socio-economic strata smoke cigarettes but may also consumer high-end smokeless tobacco products. Beedis are widely available locally and are very cheap. For example, a young person can buy almost 400 beedis for about $1."

"Numerous studies have found that smoking or chewing tobacco among youth is on the rise. There is evidence that sales of products is growing. We also have tobacco companies marketing pouches of smokeless tobacco in smaller pouches. The price is about 1/80th of a $1."

"To address this challenge, we have to make young people aware of the ill-effects of chewing tobacco and smoking. Secondly, we have a ban on the sale of tobacco to minors, but we have to enforce this ban stringently. Thirdly, we have to run educational programs targeting the youth. And fourthly, we have to bring them under the fold of tobacco cessation programs. But it is a gigantic task... it's a big job."

EGYPT

Randa Mostafa Abou El Naga, M.D.

National Program Officer

Global Tobacco Control Survey

World Health Office

Alexandria, Egypt

"In Egypt, we do not have a national study to tell to us incidence of tobacco prevalence. That's why we were among the countries selected by the Bloomberg Initiative to conduct a GATS survey. We have a few studies that show us prevalence is about 34% of adult males and roughly 10% of adult females, but there are no reliable national numbers."

"The most traumatic issue now: The youth are starting to the smoke, and the age of smoking initiation is dropping. They are smoking cigarettes, but, in Egypt, we have the growing problem of the water pipe, or Shisha. This used to be the way old men smoked in Egypt. But now it is used as social gathering in the cafes among young people, and it is growing in popularity every day."

"We are doing everything we can. We have legislation. We have a ban on smoking in public places. We have taxation. And we are putting information about the bad consequences in the school curriculum. We hope these measures will help. We are doing excellently, but now we need the enforcement. That is what we will be working on in Egypt. We still see the age of initiation dropping. We have children as young as 10-years and 11-years-old starting to smoke."

UKRAINE

Vladimir Polonets

Social Marketing Expert

Kiev National Economic University

Kiev, Ukraine

"I am an expert at social marketing and I teach at the university. I am attending this conference because of my own interest, and because of what is happening in Ukraine. What is happening is terrible. For example, you can't go to restaurants because people everywhere are smoking. You can't walk along the streets because everywhere people are smoking."

"Young people are smoking in Ukraine. For example, in one 2005 study, of people who are 15-years-old to 29-years-old, 68% of the men reported smoking at least once a day and 30% of women reported smoking daily. So I started a two-week training course in the spirit of social marketing at Kiev National Economic University. The students of this course had to develop social marketing projects with the aim of reducing tobacco consumption."

"My aim is to develop a tobacco control campaign among the students, because I am a teacher at the university and I work there everyday. I can spread this idea among them. I want to make activities among students to promote healthier lifestyles."

AFTER A BAN: KEEP PUSHING

Once New York got its smoke-free ban in place in 2003, you'd think health advocates could rest a little, right? Hardly. That's when it was time to go into advertising overdrive, says Sandra Mullen, of the World Lung Association. The group helped push a nine-month advertising push, after the ban, about the dangers of second-hand smoke. That campaign, she says, helped New Yorkers stay focused.

Once the majority of the city was on board, Mullen says, the group moved toward advertising targeted at smokers to help them break their own habits. Questions focused on how to encourage health leaders and restaurant workers to support bans, even though they didn't want to offend smokers. One suggestion: Focus on advertising healthy, smoke-free environments as a selling point.