Surrogate ads luring kids into smoking
A recent Indo-US study, conducted in India found that nearly half the children had seen and remembered a tobacco advertisement. Sneak peek into Amul's ad world
By Kounteya Sinha, TNN |
NEW DELHI: Surrogate tobacco advertisements are now luring India���s young ��� 10- to 14-yearolds ��� to take up smoking. A recent Indo-US study, conducted in Delhi and Tamil Nadu that included 11,642 sixth and eighth graders, found that nearly half the children had seen and remembered a tobacco advertisement.
More than 490 of the students surveyed from 32 schools had a favourite tobacco advertisement while 238 of them could recall a brand name. The use of tobacco was five times lower among students who had not watched tobacco promotions.
According to the study, published in the May issue of the American Journal of Health Behaviour, which shows a connection between exposure to surrogate tobacco ads and consumption, cigarette companies are trying to tap the young by falsely associating use of tobacco products with qualities such as glamour, energy and sex appeal.
This finding has serious implications for India, 51% of whose population is below the age of 25.
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Monika Arora, director of Hriday and one of the researchers, said that event sponsorships and lifestyle stores named after tobacco products were slipping through the cracks of the law in India, which banned tobacco advertisements in 2004.
The threat made WHO turn the focus on the sophisticated marketing campaigns of tobacco companies to attract the young, on ���World No Tobacco Day��� on May 31.
���This study provides solid evidence that tobacco advertising and promotion are associated with tobacco use among urban youth,��� Arora said.
���Smoking initiation,��� she said, ���largely occurs before the age of 18 and this study highlights that younger adolescents are more vulnerable. So, the government needs to enforce a comprehensive ban on tobacco ads.���
The study���s principal investigator, Cheryl Perry from the University of Texas School of Public Health, said: ���As India becomes more westernised, more teenagers will use tobacco. The sixth graders as a group are already thinking that smoking is cool.���
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Meanwhile, WHO has urged governments to protect the world���s 1.8 billion young people by imposing a ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
Studies have shown almost a quarter of smokers in Southeast Asia start using tobacco before the age of 10.
���In many countries, over half the minors have bought tobacco products from stores and 70% have never been refused despite their age,��� said Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, WHO regional director for Southeast Asia.
���Tobacco use among girl students is on the rise. It is clearly proven that exposure to direct and indirect advertising leads to an increase in tobacco use among young people,��� Dr Plianbangchang said.
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More than 14% of Indian students are regular tobacco users.
A WHO study of 13 to 15-year-olds in schools worldwide found that more than 55% of students had seen cigarette advertisements on billboards and 20% owned an item with the logo of a cigarette brand.
���But it is the developing world, home to more than 80% of the world���s youth, which is most aggressively targeted by tobacco companies,��� said Dr Douglas Bettcher, director of WHO���s Tobacco Free Initiative.
���Young women and girls are particularly at risk, with tobacco companies seeking to weaken cultural opposition to their products in countries where women have traditionally not used tobacco,��� Dr Bettcher said.
Dr K Srinath Reddy, who is co-author of the Delhi-Tamil Nadu study, said some tobacco brands continued to be advertised through surrogate means, which was evident in the favourite tobacco advertisements reported by students.
FATAL PUFF
��� Tobacco kills a third to a half of those who use it globally
��� India is home to nearly 12 crore smokers
��� Smoking kills 1 lakh females and 6 lakh males a year, between the ages of 30-69 in India
��� Smoking is expected to kill 10 lakh people in India, annually, from 2010
��� It will be the primary cause behind one in five of all male deaths and one in 20 of all female deaths in India
��� Nearly 70% of these one million deaths���seven lakh people, will die young
��� Over 50% of the tobacco deaths will occur in illiterate men or women, with 80% of them residing in rural India
��� On an average, every tobacco user loses 15 years In India, only 2% of adults quit smoking
��� Bidi is the most popular form of smoking tobacco in India
��� 70% of tobacco smoked is in the form of bidis
��� For every cigarette, 8 bidis are sold
��� Nearly 85% of the world's bidi tobacco is grown in India
��� 22% of adults worldwide currently smoke tobacco
��� 36% men smoke compared to 8% women globally
��� About 61% of men who smoke will die at ages 30-69, compared with 41% of otherwise similar non-smokers
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