Imagine sitting down to dinner, and having a nearby diner light up a cigarette. Or watching a game of football, with billboards advertising cigarette brands encircling the field.
In Australia in 2024, these examples may seem like a faint memory for some. For many young Australians, it seems completely foreign and absurd.
That’s because an entire generation have been protected from this kind of exposure to tobacco industry influence by strong laws and policies that put a barrier between them and tobacco.
These laws no doubt seemed radical at the time. It was only in 2004 that Ireland became the first country to ban smoking in indoor public places. Now 162 countries have some form of indoor smoking ban in their national law, and 74 are completely smoke free in all indoor public places, workplaces and public transport.
In 2011, Australia was the first country to implement tobacco plain packaging, a bold step to stop the tobacco industry from using slick packaging as a mobile billboard, and a move that was fiercely fought by the industry. In 2024, at least 23 more countries have now adopted plain packaging, and evidence shows that in Australia, it’s led to a significant decline in smoking prevalence. Our world leading plain packaging laws were strengthened last year in a significant package of tobacco control reforms that extend laws on packaging and advertising and close loopholes that have been found in the decade or so since.
But young people are still being targeted by the tobacco industry – in old ways and new.
A report by global tobacco industry watchdog STOP highlighted how big tobacco has circumvented advertising restrictions by sponsoring teams in Formula One– a sport that’s exploded in popularity partly due to the Netflix show ‘Drive to Survive’. Analysis of the show revealed an estimated 1.1 billion minutes of footage streamed around the world contained tobacco related content, and half of all episodes in Season 4 featured tobacco-related branding in the first minute.
At global talks on tobacco control in Panama earlier this year, youth groups from around the world urged governments to “to end the tobacco industry’s insidious strategy of introducing innovative and alluring features or products and using digital media, including entertainment media, to influence our impressionable minds”.
Putting the problem in the spotlight
Each year the World Health Organization (WHO) celebrates World No Tobacco Day, which informs the public on the dangers of using tobacco, the business practices of tobacco companies, what WHO is doing to fight the tobacco epidemic, and what people around the world can do to claim their right to health.
This year’s World No Tobacco Day theme is ‘Protecting young people from industry interference’ – a chance for young people across the world to have their voices heard and call on governments to protect them from predatory marketing tactics.
According to the WHO, the tobacco industry targets young people for a “lifetime of profits”, with an estimated 37 million people aged 13-15 using tobacco. Children are also using e-cigarettes at rates higher than adults, in all regions. In Australia, 21% of people aged 18-24 vape regularly (either daily, weekly or monthly) - up from 5% five years ago.
As highlighted by our colleagues at Quit, Cancer Council Victoria and Deakin University, global tobacco companies now control the vaping industry. They also point out that a lack of coordinated national action has, in the past, stalled progress on reducing young people’s tobacco use.
In 2024, this is backed up in The Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2023. The report showed that efforts to defend health policy from tobacco industry interference had deteriorated around the world. Given the tobacco industry regularly renews what the WHO labels its “relentless efforts to market its products to vulnerable groups, especially children”, those working in health policy and governance also need to renew our strategy and keep pushing towards a tobacco-free future.
What next?
The Australian government has recently introduced important changes to protect our young people, but we can’t be complacent.
As the tobacco industry’s strategy evolves, so too must the strategies to combat them. We need to take a look back at the innovative measures taken decades ago and learn from them to develop the boundary-pushing public health measures of the future.
That could be through phasing out sales through ‘tobacco-free generation’ laws, like the ones pending in the UK Parliament, that stop children born after 2009 from ever buying tobacco products. It could be through limiting the number of retailers who are allowed to sell tobacco, as was the case in New Zealand, where a law to reduce the number of tobacco shops by more than 90% was legislated but never implemented. Or it could mean requiring health warnings on individual cigarettes, as was recently implemented in Canada and in progress in Australia.
It could mean, as recent tobacco reforms in Australia aim to do, regulating influencers and online platforms to stop the digital marketing of tobacco products to children, or restrict advertisers from posting ads for e-cigarettes on social media, cleverly disguised as user-generated content.
Alongside new thinking, we have the benefit of history and some tried and true strategies in the fight against big tobacco: evidence-based measures; consistent national laws which are enforced; and providing plenty of support for people wanting to quit their nicotine dependence. In most countries around the world, there is still a lot more work to be done to fully implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the global treaty that establishes minimum laws and policies on tobacco.
In 1987, the Victorian government in Australia passed new legislation to ban tobacco sponsorship of sport. The new laws took into account the fact that 80 per cent of adult smokers took up the habit before the age of 16, and 64,000 Victorian children were estimated to die prematurely of smoking-related diseases.
The then premier, John Cain, said the measures were designed to counter the effect of tobacco advertising on young people.
“There is a social obligation, a moral obligation on a government… to do something about it,” Mr Cain said.
In 2024, the same sentiment rings true. The solution won’t be a simple one – it will require the creativity, foresight and commitment of those who fought for the policies and laws we currently have in place to protect our young people. It will benefit from new insights and the energy which young people are bringing to the challenge. But, it’s a challenge we are determined to meet with, and for the benefit of our future generations and global health outcomes.