ecns [expanded by feedex.net]: Tobacco firms target social media to find new smokers

ecns [expanded by feedex.net]

ecns

Tobacco firms target social media to find new smokers
http://www.ecns.cn/2013/06-01/66427.shtml
Jun 1st 2013, 03:21





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2013-06-01 12:21
comment


A loophole in the law has left Chinese citizens heavily exposed to tobacco advertising, health authorities said in their latest report on tobacco control.


Since 1994, tobacco companies have been banned from directly advertising their products via broadcasts, movies, television shows, newspapers or periodicals, and ads should not appear in waiting rooms, cinemas, meeting halls or stadiums.


But cigarette companies have found new ways to market their products by advertising via social media or by sponsoring events, neither of which is covered by the current law, according to the 2013 China Tobacco-Control Report published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.


The companies have also established smoking forums on the Internet, created games and short films with tobacco themes, got their products in TV news programs, and even implanted brands in online games.


The report said a survey showed that in 30 days, a total of 220 million adults in the country were exposed to cigarette advertising via media platforms or sponsored events.


China has 300 million smokers, and 28.1 percent of people over the age of 15 smoke. The rate among males has reached 52.96 percent, according to Xinhua news agency.


The Chinese Association on Tobacco Control published an open letter on its website yesterday to mark World No Tobacco Day, calling on young people to boycott a Youth Leader competition to be held by a tobacco company later this month.


"The event is a typical example showing how a tobacco firm tries to lead young people to have a positive view of smoking," the letter said. "By sponsoring the competition, the company will link qualities of young people, such as diligence, beauty and success, with its tobacco brand. It forces the participants to become the company's spokespersons."


On the website of "Yanyue," which translates as "smoke pleasant," web users are being invited to take part in a jigsaw puzzle contest. Players will find the picture they complete is the logo of a cigarette brand. All prizes are packs of cigarettes.


The Longyan Tobacco Industrial Co Ltd has implanted one of its brands into an online soccer game, and invested in the shooting of a short film called "The time travels of a cigarette."


"All these online acts are essentially tobacco advertisements," said Li Qiang, a researcher with the Tobacco Control Office of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.


"All these online acts are essentially tobacco advertisements," Li Qiang, a researcher with the center's tobacco control office, told Xinhua.


Li said the center had found that 68 percent of smokers and 84 percent of non-smokers "disagreed" or "strongly disagreed" with the notion that tobacco companies should be allowed to advertise at will.


"New media has become an important platform for tobacco company to market for their products," Li Tong, of the ThinkTank Research Center for Health Development, a non-government organization on tobacco control, told the Nanfang Daily.


"Tobacco firms implant their brands in hot news topics, short films and online activities to boost their popularity and attract new smokers," said Li.


China signed the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003. It stipulates signatories ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.


As of last year, 86 countries have comprehensively banned tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship since the campaign was started by Norway in 1975.







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