Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
Overview
Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship are tools that encourage children to take up smoking. Internal tobacco company documents have shown that children are targets for tobacco marketing campaigns, that most adult smokers do not switch brands, and that children tend to smoke the most heavily-promoted brands.
Comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising are important to reduce youth smoking rates. Partial bans are ineffective because companies move their marketing activities to formats not covered by law. In general, tobacco consumption reduces more quickly in countries with comprehensive advertising bans than without them.
Article 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control requires nations that have ratified the treaty to introduce comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising and promotion within five years. Cross border advertising is also banned. Guidelines on implementing a comprehensive advertising ban were adopted at the Third Conference of the Parties in late 2008.
ASH documents
ASH Tobacco Advertising and Promotion webpage
Essential Information 19: Tobacco Advertising and Promotion (pdf)
ASH Campaign Briefings (pdf files):
Tobacco Displays at the Point of Sale
Current Key Texts
Point of sale display of tobacco products. The Centre for Tobacco Control Research. Cancer Research UK, 2008.
Harris F, MacKintosh AM, Anderson S et al (2006) Effects of the 2003 advertising/promotion ban in the United Kingdom on awareness of tobacco marketing: findings from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey Tobacco Control 15(3):iii26-33
DiFranza JR, Wellman RJ, Sargent JD et al (2006) Tobacco promotion and the initiation of tobacco use: assessing the evidence for causality. Pediatrics 117(6): e1237- 48.
Lovato C, Linn G, Stead LF, Best A (2003) Impact of tobacco advertising and promotion on increasing adolescent smoking behaviours. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2003, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD003439. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD003439.
Other Seminal Texts
HastingsG & MacFadyen L (2000) Keep Smiling. No-one's going to die. The Centre for Tobacco Control Research.
MacFadyen L, Hastings G, MacKintosh AM (2001) Cross sectional study of young people's awareness of and involvement with tobacco marketing BMJ 322(7285):513-7
Hastings G, MacFadyen L (2000) A day in the life of an advertising man: review of internal documents from the UK tobacco industry's principal advertising agencies BMJ 321(7257):366-71
Saffer H, Chaloupka F (2000) The effect of tobacco advertising bans on tobacco consumption Journal of Health Economics 19 (6): 1117-1137
Useful websites
Roswell Park Cancer Institute tobacco documents and advertising collection
Enormous (but searchable and user-friendly) collection of advertising materials used by the tobacco companies over the years. A good starting point for looking at the different approaches used to market tobacco.
Tobacco Control Supersite - Advertising Gallery
A very large gallery of tobacco advertising images by the tobacco industry. This site also contains a collection of anti-smoking posters.
Vintage cigarette adverts
Extraordinary collection of cigarette ads from Life magazine in the 40s and 50s.
Further information
In the UK, legislation banning tobacco advertising has been in force since 2003, with provisions covering international sport introduced from 2005. Some very restricted advertising is still permitted at the point of sale but this will end when regulations banning the display of tobacco products at the point of sale are implemented from October 2011. See details of the UK’s legislation here:
An EU Directive banning cross-border advertising throughout the EU has been in place since 2005. This includes sponsorship of large sporting events.
Although tobacco advertising has been banned in the UK, there is concern about the way smoking is portrayed in films, on television and online, as avenues for further tobacco marketing.
