Pretoria - The ban on cigarette advertising has worked – and so will the mooted ban on alcohol advertising, says the head of the National Council against Smoking (NCAS).
According to Yussuf Saloojee, smoking among 15- to 16-year-olds has decreased by 26 percent since the ban on cigarette advertising was introduced in South Africa in 2000 – and by a massive 33 percent among adults.
“The role of advertising is to attract new customers to a product,” the anti-smoking activist said on Tuesday.
Saloojee’s comments are echoed in a recent report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that said “meaningful tobacco control must include the elimination of all forms of tobacco advertising”.
“Advertising, promotion and sponsorship form the front line of the tobacco industry to maintain and increase its customer base and normalise tobacco use,” the report stated.
South Africa is one of 41 countries that have put tobacco control policies in place. According to the WHO, as many as 7.4 million premature deaths can be prevented with these policies.
Saloojee said tobacco companies tried to bypass the law and introduced viral marketing and sponsored raves.
In 2008 the government changed the law to close the viral marketing loophole.
The tobacco companies took the government to the Constitutional Court which found that the amended law was constitutional.
Saloojee argued that the numbers proved these strict laws had been effective.
“We've got the data to show it. The number of adults smoking in South Africa has dropped by 33 percent,” he said.
Saloojee added that Australia had been at the forefront of tackling tobacco.
“They have been very successful. Australia introduced a law in December on plain packaging,” he said. The WHO has recommended that other countries follow Australia’s example.
Derek Yach, of the Discovery Vitality group, also said Australia was a good example to follow.
“There are several policies still not fully implemented in South Africa that could make a difference: laws to not permit brand visibility and marketing in shops; plain packaging as has been started in Australia; and public support for more effective smoking cessation programmes,” he said.
“If you look at it from a global perspective, two out of three deaths are caused by non-communicable diseases,” said Saloojee.
He also supported Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s plan to ban alcohol advertising.
He said claims that the banning of alcohol advertising in South Africa would simply not be effective and lead to a loss of jobs were unfounded.
“That is nonsense,” he said. “They made the same argument when the government wanted to ban tobacco advertising.”
Saloojee argued that advertising agencies, newspapers and radio companies were not affected by the advertising ban.
Joe Maila, spokesman for the Department of Health, said one of the department’s main goals was to reduce the number of diseases.
“We have a responsibility to prevent diseases and that is what we are doing.” - Pretoria News