ACSH staffers are astounded to learn that cigarette makers are promoting their brand at U.K. music festivals and youth social networks such as Facebook, even though such marketing is supposed to be banned in the EU. Action on Smoking and Health’s chief executive, Deborah Arnott, details the companies’ motives:
The tobacco industry needs to recruit new young smokers as their existing customers either quit or die. Their problem is that all but a few smokers start by the age of 18 and by that time they have made the brand choice that will last many of them a lifetime. Most forms of advertising are illegal in the UK, so the industry plays a clever game staying at the edge of the law, but in truth they are engaged in a fierce battle to capture the illegal teen market.
“In the U.S. such marketing would never fly,” remarks ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross adds, “I’m amazed that in the U.K., where they seem so concerned about the mythical health effects of biotech food, cigarette promotion to youth at music festivals seems to be unfettered. They should get their priorities straight.”