Tobacco industry sidestepping ad ban with new media

The tobacco industry appears to have sneaked into new kinds of media, such as the Internet, social networking tools, shopping bags and tissue boxes, for tobacco promotion targeting particularly the young, according to the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control.

The industry is trying to circumvent laws and regulations on tobacco advertising and lure the younger generation via new media forms, warned Xu Guihua, deputy director of the association.

In a special campaign launched by the association, 83 pictures featuring "disguised" tobacco advertising have been collected from the general public between Jan 21 and April 30.

From these pictures, "we see tobacco advertising is still widespread in China," she said.

The association has also detected, via online search engines, 77 activities involving tobacco sponsorship, she added.

"These are in fact prohibited by the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which China ratified in 2006," she added.

To correct the situation, Xu urged Chinese lawmakers to note and plug the loopholes in the nation's advertisement law, which is now being revised.

In the publicized draft amendment to the current law that took effect in early 1995, media including radio, TV, movies, newspapers, websites and magazines are banned from advertising tobacco products.