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PostHeaderIcon Selling Death and Circumventing the Law - The Indian Scenario

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Tobacco PromotionThis article by Hemant Goswami was published in the magazine "Health for Millions," November 2009 Issue. 

TOBACCO INDUSTRY – THE CORPORATE PLOY 

“Marketing”- that is the buzzword for every business in today’s consumer-driven market ridden with cut-throat competition. But unlike other businesses, the tobacco industry faces little dilemma about retaining the existing customers during their lifetime. The addictive nature of tobacco does the job for them. The greater challenge for the tobacco industry is timely replacement of their customers who would die prematurely from the use of their products!  

Owing to largely unregulated marketing, replacement of dead customers was not a major challenge to the tobacco industry until the1980’s. Doctors, film stars, politicians and sports heroes regularly appeared in promotional campaigns and advertisements of tobacco products. This placed tobacco in the category of one of the most desirable and glamorous products.  

THE CHANGING WORLD 

Though the US Surgeon General’s warning about the harm from tobacco use came in the 1960’s, it was only in the 1980’s that countries began to consider restrictions and legislations on tobacco promotion as a means to reduce its use.  

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PostHeaderIcon Anti-Tobacco Efforts Are No Match for Tobacco-Company Maneuvers in India

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Article by Hemant GoswamiThis article was published in MONITOR, Winter 2005, Volume 13 - Issue 2 (Insider's View). Monitor is managed by 'Center for Communications, Health and the Environment, Washington'

Anti-Tobacco Efforts Are No Match for Tobacco-Company Maneuvers in India
by Hemant Goswami, Chairperson, Burning Brain Society, Chandigarh, India

Anti-tobacco campaigns aren't cutting through the smoke in India. Even as Bollywood movie king Shahrukh Khan announced that he was quitting smoking for his 40th birthday, a recent survey by the Burning Brain Society, an anti-tobacco civil society organization based in Chandigarh, India, revealed that more than 89 percent of respondents were unaware of the country's anti-tobacco laws, and 73 percent were ignorant about the rights of non-smokers. (See chart.) Conversely, almost all of the respondents could recall more than one brand of tobacco product and some form of tobacco advertisement.

This is reason to worry especially because tobacco companies continue to promote their products relentlessly in India despite ratification of landmark anti-tobacco treaties such as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and the 2003 Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA). In fact, these behemoths are pursuing innovative means of surrogate advertisement, publicity, product placement and point-of-purchase (POP) displays, including eye-catching arrangements in super stores, grocery shops, restaurants, toy stores and stationery outlets.

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Tobacco Facts

Q. What are the economic impacts of tobacco use?

A. The epidemic poses a long-term economic threat to countries and may slow their development. Tobacco negatively affects the welfare of users and costs the world hundreds of billions of dollars each year in lost productivity. If the epidemic worsens, the economic losses in highly populated developing countries will be severe. Many of these countries are manufacturing centres for the global economy and the growing number of tobacco-related deaths - half of which occur during prime productive years - will impose a heavy burden on these economies.
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