How tobacco companies dodge advertising bans
TOBACCO companies are dodging advertising bans by using films, TV and the internet to target children, a new survey says.
More than three-quarters of 1000 people aged 12 to 24 surveyed by the Cancer Institute NSW reported seeing tobacco promotion or advertising in films.
Over half of all the respondents also saw its promotion on TV.
Seventy-seven per cent of those surveyed said they noticed people smoking - or the promotion of smoking - in movies, followed by 68 per cent who saw it on TV and 31 per cent in licensed venues.
Twenty-six per cent of those surveyed said it was evident in video games.
The figures were slightly higher for the under-18s, with 24 per cent noticing it in pubs, 26 per cent on the internet and a jump to 71 per cent for TV.
The report said tobacco companies had diverted resources to non-traditional promotional channels.
"Adolescents and young people are the most vulnerable to the tobacco industry's suggestive messages," Cancer Institute NSW CEO Prof David Currow said in a statement.
Protecting Children from Tobacco coordinator Stafford Sanders said governments needed to go further to reduce children's exposure to smoking in public venues and events, and to reduce promotion of smoking in media, including the internet.
"Continued smoking promotion to youth is undermining government strategies to reduce and denormalise smoking," he said.
However, he said content on social media websites can't be government controlled, exposing children to web pages and groups supporting tobacco brands.
Mr Sanders said many of these pages that "like" particular brands have been traced back to tobacco company employees.
"We have no doubt that the tobacco industry's goal is children, as the vast number of smokers are recruited when they are teenagers," Mr Sanders said.
"Of the young people who take up smoking, half will die from tobacco-related diseases."
