Draft gets tough on tobacco ads
Print Edition
CHINA’S top legislature has begun reviewing a draft amendment to the 20-year-old Advertisement Law that aims to ban tobacco advertisements in more public venues and online.
“Tobacco advertisements directly or indirectly transmitted via radio, film, television, newspaper, magazines, books, audio and visual products, electronic publications, telecommunication networks and the Internet are banned,” says the draft amendment submitted to lawmakers yesterday.
Meanwhile, the draft includes more specific public venues where tobacco ads would be banned, such as libraries, cultural centers, museums, parks, waiting rooms, theaters, meeting halls, sports auditoriums, and the vicinities of hospitals and schools.
“Outdoor tobacco advertisements are forbidden,” it says.
The bill reflects a heated anti-smoking battle in the country. In June, academics, health and legal professionals and tobacco control experts jointly signed a letter to the national legislative body, urging them to fully outlaw tobacco advertising.
If the draft is passed, showing actual smoking or drinking in ads will be prohibited, as will images of minors and promotion of binge drinking. Adverts will not be allowed to imply that smoking and drinking have positive effects such as “relieving anxiety.”
Tabled to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for the first reading at its bimonthly session this week, the amendment “further regulates advertising, boosts the development of the advertising industry and protects consumers,” according to an explanatory document.
Though touting it as “huge progress,” Liang Xiaofeng, vice director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the draft falls short of a comprehensive ban of adverts, sales and sponsorships.
As the world’s largest tobacco maker and consumer, China has more than 300 million smokers and another 740 million people are exposed to second-hand smoke.
A Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention report in May found that 6.9 percent of junior school students smoke and 48.5 percent of students between 13 and 15 had seen a tobacco advertisement in the previous month. In children aged 5 and 6, 85 percent could identify at least one cigarette brand.
Meanwhile, adverts for drugs, medical equipment and health food should not use experts or patients to make claims for the effects, and exaggerations or guarantees of such effects are off-limits.
The draft also addresses spam by stipulating that no adverts should be sent via phones or e-mails without the recipients’ consent.
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