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Where is the punch in cigarette ad warnings?

Jaiboy Joseph

CIGARETTES are regarded as a growth industry in Eastern Europe, Russia, China and parts of the Far East. Not so in the US where sales are shrinking.

Recently, some of the US' biggest companies were ordered to pay billions of dollars in damages by courts on charges of enticing people into the habit and thus causing countless numbers of cancer deaths. All the five firms arraigned said they would appeal , and it is on the cards that the matter may drag on for years.

Some researchers are at pains to explain that it is not advertising alone that is responsible for the spread of the habit, but parental example, peer pressure, a rebellious attitude of the young and, probably, daily stress, that is at the root of the pro blem.

In 1964, the US Surgeon General declared that the death rate from lung cancer was greater for smokers than for non-smokers. This verdict resulted in the passing of the Federal Cigarette Labelling Act and the imposition of the now familiar statutory warni ng on all cigarette packets and in advertising.

Cigarettes, however, continued as a legal product for adults, but ads targeted at children were no longer legal. As for the sponsorship of sporting events, there was no bar except that cigarette names could not be used. Thus R.J.Reynolds and Philip Morri s could support events in their own names, but not so Camel and Malboro.

India adopted the principle of avoiding cigarette advertising on TV and radio as these were channels in the general view which found their way right inside homes.

The cigarette people remained unfazed, because without affecting sales such a restriction helped them trim costs on publicity. But this turned out to be cold comfort after a while as the cost of sponsorship itself rose with inflation.

It must be admitted the statutory warnings used here look all too bland, whereas in the West, a deadlier note is struck in variations such as `Cigarette smoke contains carbonmonoxide', `Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to health', and s o on. Also in countries with a low rate of literacy, statutory warnings are hardly read.

In India, loose sales of cigarettes account for a substantial volume. In marketing jargon it is known as `stick sales'.

It is significant that a number of bidi addicts have switched over to cigarettes. As one sociologist suggested it is a way of proclaiming their so-called improved lifestyle.

By the same token, bidis have come into fashion in certain quarters in the West. I have seen two varieties from abroad. There is the bidi with a good bit of length resembling a cigarette. The other is the bidi exotically wrapped and scented, such as the strawberry-flavoured Darshan bidis, manufactured exclusively for Kretek International in California.

In times past when the dangers of cigarette smoking were not medically proved, there were quite a few leaders in the Indian Independence movement who, too, were addicts, using their ``noses as chimneys'' as Gandhiji put it. Thus during the Swadeshi Movem ent, Motilal Nehru who enjoyed a puff was accustomed to crack: ``I am only burning foreign goods.''

It is interesting that there was a time in the 1920s when one US manufacturer detecting a certain weakening in demand started an advertising campaign urging people to light a cigarette every time they wanted a sweet if only to keep slim. The American med ia puts a stop to this war between two of the biggest advertising interests, namely the confectioners and cigarette makers.

Besides troops many civilians are known to ``gasp for gaspers'' during war and stressful periods. During the UN action against Sadam Hussain for example, there was a pressing demand from Iraq for cigarettes from India.

Even in peace time, the extraction of a cigarette from the packet, and the lighting and smoking of it is a diversion, believed to lessen tension. Ask any smoker.