Should all tobacco advertising and sponsorship be banned? Why or why not?
Editorial note: following numerous reader contributions to this topic, we have now closed this debate. More topics are open for comments here. If you wish to contribute feedback on this topic or suggest other ideas for debates, please e-mail us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Switzerland, home to the world’s largest cigarette companies, has some of the weakest laws against tobacco advertising in Europe.
On February 13, Swiss voters approved the people’s initiative, “Yes to the protection of children against tobacco advertising”, which calls for a ban on any adverts targeting young people.
What do you think of the initiative? And what is your take on this issue?
From the article Swiss back further restrictions on tobacco advertising
From the article Explainer: Swiss voters to decide on anti-tobacco advert initiative
It is widely backed up by scientific evidence that Tobacco severely damages health and causes death to both smokers and non-smokers. As well in moments of pandemic it increases the incidence of complications and hospital burden. There is no reason why people should smoke at all and any type of ads encouraging anybody to do so should not only be banned but penalized as a crime against public health.
I do not know the exact 'data' on the subject, but adolescent smoking in Switzerland seems to be higher than in many other first world countries that I have visited. In fact, even friends that come visit us from other countries (such as Canada or the EU) notice that Swiss kids smoke a lot more than in their respective countries. I do not know what is behind this - most likely multiple factors - but anything we can do to reduce this occurrence will be a win for all of us. This vote was a step in the right direction.
Why not ban the use of nicotine and other additives in tobacco products rather than banning advertising?
Addiction is the problem, not communication.
Banning communication is an intolerable form of authoritarianism.
Ads are not communication, it is a sort of propaganda to encourage people to consume something. It is wrong to encourage anybody to consume a product that will eventually kill you and others (passive smokers).
do you think alcohol advertising should be banned also?
Alcohol also creates addiction and health problems!
Thank you Switzerland! Now there is finally light on the horizon.
It is a great relief that this initiative is successful;
There is (still) far too much smoking in Switzerland - in public it is hardly possible to escape the smoke; and so especially for the youngest this bad, unhealthy example is omnipresent to the maximum.
They learn with their mother's milk that smoke is present everywhere and that respect for non-smokers is not obligatory...
The signs are very good that this attitude will now change.
We are all called upon to work together to put a stop to tobacco smoke in Switzerland.
Gioia Zürcher; DE-Hamburg
Danke Schweiz! Nun ist endlich Licht am Horizont.
Eine große Erleichterung, daß diese Initiative Erfolg hat;
Es wird (noch) viel zu viel in der Schweiz geraucht - in der Öffentlichkeit ist es kaum möglich, dem Qualm entkommen zu können; und so ist eben gerade für die Jüngsten dieses schlechte, gesundheitsschädliche Vorbild maximal omnipräsent.
Sie erlernen bisher quasi mit der Muttermilch, daß allerorten der Qualm mit dabei ist und Respekt gegenüber Nichtrauchern nicht verpflichtend ist...
Dafür, daß sich diese Haltung nun ändern wird, stehen die Zeichen sehr gut.
Wir alle sind dazu aufgerufen, mit daran zu arbeiten, in der Schweiz dem Taback-Qualm Einhalt zu gebieten.
Gioia Zürcher; DE-Hamburg
Yes, ALL advertising for all sorts of smoking/vaping and also for all alcoholic drinks should be banned, in all media - tv, radio, print, outdoors, online, in-game and in-movie positioning.
Why?
The most important reason is that children, due to their lack of experience, natural mental abilities - in relation to risk assessment, are simply unable to make the right choices in this regard; AND they are very much influenced by peer pressure, ads, social media, what they see in games, and eventually, what they see as "cool" thing to do.
Any smokers reading my comment, and if they are truly honest with themselves, would agree that, this is how they started smoking - by copying what they saw others do.
Second, we as a society should ask ourselves? Is making money by producing products which are bad for humans, OK? If most people think it is OK, well, then that is a democratic choice.
But I am shocked to read that many in the Swiss government did not want to ban smoking/vaping advertising which is harmful to all children, including their own children.
The fact that Switzerland is behind most countries of the world in this regard (and took decades to get to his point), is evidence that Swiss democracy, well, has a long way to go.
Let us think of the lungs of (at least) our children; no amount of money can compensate for poor health. Money is NOT that important, as human history has repeatedly proven.
The problem does not stop there. Children see adults smoking which teaches them that self destructive habits are normal and if mom and dad or others around are doing it then it is ok to do it.
I fully agree. During pandemic many people, including me, started having drinks at home.
Our children initially find such behavior of adults (after drinking) weird/strange, then they start accepting it as normal. ANY amount of alcohol has some impact on how we talk, behave, etc. Children are quite sensitive and perceptive of such subtle or more changes. They can feel it!
Question then, each parent who drinks (or smokes) must ask is: Do I want my child to adopt my habits which I know are harmful?
For me, as a caring parent, the answer is: No. Just because the society has been doing some things for 100s or 1000s of years, does not mean they are right or we should continue doing them. We cannot call ourselves smart/civilized if we cannot fix our problems.
Now there are no restrictions in UK (something I fully support), we have stopped buying alcohol for home (we never smoked, so that is not an issue). As a consequence I have started losing weight, and feel more positive, with more energy.
Let us not forget, we pay a price for ingesting toxins (alcohol, drugs, smoking/vaping). Let us be honest about it. Acknowledgement is the first step, then we can make improvements.
money doesn't smell
деньги не пахнут
Yes, I am for ban of all tobaco products advertisement. I am a smoker and I choose to be one with out ads, but if there are possibly people who started to smoke because of the ads, that should be prevented.
Interesting, thank you! In your case, did (or do) ads influence which brand of cigarette you buy?
hi, not at all. I tried several and I am buying the ones I like the taste of, also level of nicotine inside the pack plays the role.
How many people actually start smoking because of the advertising?
That's a very good question, and I started wondering too. I couldn't find exact numbers how many people start because of adverts in Switzerland, but I found a table on the effect of bans of advertisements in other countries in the document below (in German, published in 2014). https://www.bundespublikationen.admin.ch/cshop_mimes_bbl/00/0024817F68691ED3B79B3BFAB2246651.pdf
If anyone else has more recent numbers, feel free to chime in.
Why is a harmful product being 'glorified' again and again???
In Indonesia it seems that it is essential that in cigarette advertisements it also includes that 'tabacco kills'. Therefore we read 'relax and enjoy' and 'get killed'. Rather silly, I suppose. Better ban all advertisements of all items that kill (or get you addicted).
Tobacco or advertisement ban is meaningless until movies, tv shows also start banning it.
Surrogate advertisements of all these products are already there.
Question is can such be banned ?
You mean product placement rather than adverts before / during movies and TV shows?
I thought this ban in Switzerland would ban ads in all media? No? If no, then this ban is useless.
In India, smoking ads are banned, but cunning drug companies now hand out free cigarette samples in clubs. As in every country, young adults exhibit herd-instinct mentality; they see one person smoking, they start as well!
Smoking is a free choice, but it harms others around us, and further damages the environment.
I am sure that if one asks parents with children, - would you want your child to smoke? All sensible ones will say NO.
THAT should be enough to ban all forms of publicity of smoking/vaping.
By the way, vaping is entirely banned in India; cannot even sell the products. Here is a poor country way ahead of all of us. Vaping is ingesting nicotine - also bad for humans.
I am intrigued.
When it suits the agenda, things are banned. When it does not suit the agenda, notions of "freedom" comes up.
Yes, i support banning advertisements of glamorous tobacco and alcohol consumption towards young adults and children.
I also would like to see Veganism and alternative lifestyle bans as well, since we are at it.
You have a point. But eating meat has more to do with harm to the environment than our health, and you eating meat does not harm who you may sit next to. But smoking DOES harm people who are near you when you smoke!
But I agree that over time, we should encourage ourselves to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
It is not just being a vegan, in countries with no hunger (let us not use the word rich, as the masses are not really rich in any country), we simply eat too much.
Yesterday, out and about London, I could see people walking all around me, many swallowing food, as if there was not going to be food ever again. I could not help thinking of the millions/billions who may not have eaten at all in a day or more.
Smoking is not food, it is a poisonous drug; it is different from meat. Even meat is better than sugar, as sugar upsets many functions in our body; particularly as we mostly consume refined sugar and processed foods made from it - deserts, chocolate, etc.
Meat is a fundamental nutrient, cannot be banned. You cannot ban healthy food.
We do eat meat. I was just referring to the fact that the consumption of meat is now so high, that the food chain which must support our meat intake is causing massive impact on climate. But I will not eat a plant burger; I would rather eat fresh vegetables. Why eat processed food?
So, for now, meat is still on the table. For health reasons we eat less beef and more turkey (mainly meatballs - great light taste), low fat bacon, and chicken sausages instead of pork (much lower fat). Meat is limited to 2-3 days per week; rest is beans and vegetables (nothing from a can, all fresh cooked). Makes a huge improvement in energy levels.
Of course, I am with a total ban on tobacco advertising for young people, but throughout my life I have not seen any tobacco advertising. Are tobacco advertising basically there?
بالتأكيد أنا مع فرض حظر شامل على إعلانات التبغ الموجّهة للشباب، لكني في كل حياتي لم أرَ أي إعلان للتبغ. هل إعلانات التبغ موجودة أساساً؟
Others see these ads in more than one place, for example in public squares, on TV channels, and possibly also in cinema halls, but the success of this advertisement and its ability to draw attention and control people's tastes varies from person to person.
غيرك يرى هذه الإعلانات في أكثر من مكان، مثلا في الساحات العامة، وعلى شاشات القنوات التلفزيونية، وربما أيضا في قاعات السينما، لكن نجاح هذه الإعلان وقدرتها على لفت الانظار والتحكم في أذواق الناس يختلف من شخص إلى آخر.
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