Pros And Cons Of The Banning Of Tobacco Advertising

The Government of India (GOI) dropped a bombshell on tobacco Industry on Feb 6, 2001 to ban tobacco companies from advertising their products and sponsoring sports and culture events. The idea of this ban was to minimize or prevent adults, teens and young children from consuming tobacco products. Suhel Seth, CEO, Equus Advertising was very unhappy about the implementation of the ban, he quote ‘’the ban does not have teeth. It is a typical knee-jerk reaction by any Government to create some kind of popularity for itself. The Legislation has not been thought thorough’’. After the decision the Government made, ITC withdraw itself form all the sponsorship events. In a statement it quotes,’’ ITC believes that this action on its part will create the right climate for a constructive dialogue that will help develop appropriate content, rules and regulations to make the intended legislation equitable and
They should have in my opinion considered banning the product itself because it could be a waste of time and energy by implementing the ban of advertisements only and not the product, banning of advertising alone would not reduce the number of smokers, with the risk of the number smokers increasing in following years. Tobacco have mental and physical effects, dying from smoking is rarely quick and never painless. A typical addicted smoker will take 10 puffs on a cigarette over 5-minute period. Thus smokes 1 ½ packs or 30 cigarettes daily and gets 300 ‘’hits’’ of nicotine each day. 30 cigarettes daily x 365 days a year = 10,950 cigarettes per year, 10,950 x 6.50 average price of a pack of cigarettes = 3,558.75 per year, using limited money to fund the habit, which would be better spent on more essential items. It is difficult for addicted people to stop smoking and exercise the free will to stop smoking even if they accept the dangers to their