Strengthened Guidance on Social Media Marketing Will Help Countries to Curb Online Advertising of Tobacco and E-cigarettes
Statement of Yolonda C. Richardson, President and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free KidsFebruary 13, 2024WASHINGTON, D.C. – Nearly each nation on this planet has agreed to newly strengthened pointers on the advertising and marketing of tobacco and nicotine merchandise to considerably restrict how the world’s largest tobacco firms can goal younger individuals on-line. At the tenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), 183 Parties adopted measures that may assist governments restrict tobacco and e-cigarette advertising and marketing on social media and different types of digital media that cross borders.The resolution is a big step within the world combat in opposition to tobacco use, which kills greater than 8 million individuals globally annually, and a blow to the world’s largest tobacco firms which have more and more turned to social media to promote their dangerous and addictive merchandise. A current report from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids discovered that ads for simply three manufacturers offered by British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International had been seen greater than 3.4 billion instances on social media, with the vast majority of views occurring on Instagram. More than 40 p.c of the viewers reached by the 2 tobacco giants is below the age of 25.For years, tobacco giants like Philip Morris and British American Tobacco have abused the lax enforcement of promoting insurance policies on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter to achieve a world viewers of younger individuals. Tobacco firms have amassed an unlimited community of influencers to market merchandise on-line, regardless of insurance policies from platforms like Facebook and Instagram banning this type of advertising and marketing.The resolution from COP10 supplies steerage to governments on swiftly addressing rising traits in tobacco advertising and marketing and sends a robust sign to social media platforms that governments are being attentive to the content material on these platforms. For too lengthy, social media firms like Facebook and Instagram have been complicit within the egregious advertising and marketing ways of tobacco firms.Unsurprisingly, governments aligned with tobacco business pursuits tried to hinder the adoption of those essential pointers. Tobacco firms have a protracted historical past of undermining the work of the COP and these makes an attempt ought to remind all governments that the tobacco business will cease at nothing to combat the measures it is aware of work to drive down charges of tobacco use and impression their backside line.The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids welcomes the numerous actions taken by governments at COP10 and stands able to help the implementation of those life-saving measures.
https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/press-releases/2024_02_13_strengthened-guidance-on-social-media-marketing
