LETTERS: Tobacco companies use cunning marketing tactics to attract consumers, especially the youth.
One tobacco company reportedly hired young models and influencers aged 21 and 24 to promote its heated tobacco product on social media, breaking its own policy of not using models under 25.
Another company hosted music events to promote its cigarettes. Attendees were bombarded with cigarette promotions, exploiting the allure of nonconformity to attract youth.
The company also used youth-oriented hashtags to promote its e-cigarettes on social media, inserting itself into pop culture discussions to reach young consumers.
These tactics demonstrate how tobacco companies design their marketing to exploit young people's interests and get them addicted to their products, despite the devastating health consequences.
In Malaysia, the tobacco industry scored a major victory with the exclusion of the generational endgame (GEG) element from the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023 passed by Parliament recently.
This element, which aimed to prevent the younger generation born after 2007 from smoking, was not included in the final law, thereby giving the tobacco industry the opportunity to continue targeting the youth.
Tobacco companies also used influencers to promote cigarettes as a common habit.
For anti-tobacco advocates, this is a setback.
Their efforts to protect the younger generation from the dangers of tobacco have become more difficult without strong laws to support them.
Anti-tobacco advocates have long been working to reduce tobacco use through awareness campaigns, lobbying for stricter laws, and providing support to those who want to quit smoking.
In addition, and in more than one ironic way, World No Tobacco Day is celebrated every year on May 31 to raise awareness about the dangers of tobacco and encourage efforts to reduce its use.
SITI HAJAR BADZLIN GHAZALI
Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times