11 years earlier, in the United States, tobacco companies such as RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris, had been accused of lying and misleading the public about the effects of tobacco on health. The sanction was then to broadcast anti-smoking spots on television and in the written press in order to “redeem” oneself. Not allowing themselves to be done, the manufacturers appealed against the judgment in order to modify certain details and it is only today that the broadcasts of this information campaign begin. At the time, social media was not as extensive and therefore was not included in the judgment. These years of delay have enabled manufacturers to avoid sharing these spots on the internet, the platform that most affects young people.
260 TV spots and 50 newspapers
For a year, these tobacco companies will have to pay a full page 5 times in the 50 main American national dailies, such as the Washington Post or the New York Time. Likewise for TV, they will have to buy 260 TV spots from the big chains like ABC, CBS and NBC. In writing or on video, they will simply present the results of smoking. We can for example read, on a basic white background, the sentence: “Smoking kills an average of 1,200 Americans per day and smoking kills more annually than murders, AIDS, suicides, drugs, road accidents and alcohol combined “.
It is thanks to this kind of campaign, to cigarette taxes, and restrictions on advertising, that the number of adult smokers has fallen sharply over the past 50 years. In 1960, 42% of adult Americans smoked compared to just 15% today. Tobacco is, however, still responsible for thousands of dead every year. It is now regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which now seeks to limit the use of nicotine, the substance involved in addiction.
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