Advertisements Related to Alcohol or Tobacco: To Be or Not To Be
Introduction:
My reflective project is linked to my career-related study as I study BTEC Business. Unit 3 highlights the theory of marketing practices in retail. In this topic, we studied the 4P’s of marketing which included, “Price, Place, Product, and Promotion.” In this project, I will use the information of that I have learned while studying the unit on,” Promotion.” Promotion can be divided into, “Above the line and below the line promotion.” Cigarette and alcohol businesses use both these methods of promotion.
This project will analyze the impact of both on the consumer. Various issues regarding the negative impact of the above on teenagers, young children, adults, and pregnant women will be discussed. This leads us to consider the fact that whether advertising for tobacco and cigarettes is harmful or not and whether should it be banned.
People who consume or are slaves to these vices do face certain dilemmas like ethical, religious, and of course not to forget medical impact as well on their health in the long term. This project will shed light and discuss some of these in-depth to reach a viable conclusion.
- A) PPS: none
- B) Language development: none
- C) BTEC Unit: Unit 3
- D) Service learning: none
- E) IB English/Arabic: none
The ethical dilemma
Various types of research done all over the world have proved that the consumption of alcohol and cigarettes influences the health of the user in a harmful manner.
Governments are committed to protecting their citizens in all ways. People who use drugs like cocaine or speed dangerously on the roads are sent to jail as they break the law, and this is harmful to them and society as well. However, users of alcohol and cigarettes are not penalized in any way even though these are equally harmful not only to the user but to those around them. For example, when a person is smoking the others who are with him inhale this smoke and are passive smokers and are equally harmed. Alcohol users become abusive and are a menace and threat to society after the level is above a certain percentage in their bodies.
Governments are faced with an ethical dilemma that; would they be protecting the citizens if they imposed a ban on businesses that advertise for alcohol and cigarettes or should the citizens be allowed to make that decision on their own?
Religious reasons
Most people are affected by religion and consider the religious aspect of things in their daily life. Religions guide people to do the right thing, even for something like smoking and drinking. For example, in Islam, one should neither drink nor smoke because this affects the lungs and destroys the blood and brain cells, which in turn leads to a large percentage of the users developing diseases related to the lungs as lung cancer and various throat-related problems. This is because of inhaling the carbon dioxide and using newer ways and methods of smoking like the ‘Vape’ which is thought to be less harmful but, is not so. The water from Vaping inhaling goes in the lungs and harms them more than cigarettes do. It not only affects the lungs and blood cells but also the kidneys which get destroyed and may stop working.
Kids’ reasons
Many children and youngsters between the ages of 11 to 17 start smoking and drinking at this early age. This may be due to peer pressure or they want to try something new. At this tender age, their brain and lungs are still developing, and the growth should be in the right direction. However, when they consume cigarettes and alcohol, they might get Cancer of the lungs, mouth, or brain. This will of course change their lives for the worse.
Health reasons
Alcohol affects the cells of the brain as well as the blood and kidneys harmfully. There are other side effects also which impair the growth and development of the body.
Marketing
Tobacco and alcohol companies use different methods to advertise for their products. Some of it may be below-the-line or above-the-line methods. Usually, these companies use above-the-line methods where these products are advertised in popular magazines and on TV programs that young people see. They may use a famous film star or popular singer or even a popular sportsmanlike a football player using their products. This attracts these kids at a tender age and makes them want to be like their superhero or heroine and so they copy him or her and start using cigarettes. The advertisements for alcohol are more subtle and display only the product and not it is consumed.
Some advertisements are persuasive while others are informative. In the case of cigarettes, both methods are used. Looking at it from the ethical viewpoint only informative should be used, which is to inform the user of the ingredients, date of production and expiry, etc., and let the user decide if he wants to use the product or not. However, this is not the case; companies do use persuasive methods to advertise which lures young people to start smoking cigarettes as mentioned above.
The promotions and the advertisements are done on these products are immense. Most companies advertise for their products to increase sales, irrespective of the fact whether the consumption of these is harmful or not. These businesses are usually do not taking CSR into account as they are only concerned with increasing their market share and profits in the long run. The large-scale advertisements carried out have an impact on all old and young. For example, in Indonesia alone, children from the ages of 5 to 10 years of age and teenagers as well consume 3 packs of cigarettes a day. This leads to many problems of the heart and lungs and deaths arising out of these are nearly 300,000 per annum. When teenagers see advertisements about alcohol they start consuming it an early age and are affected by it because they are still young and the impact is large. Famous companies like Heineken and Marlboro try to target young children and kids and in the process let have an addiction to the two products which are tobacco and alcohol. The companies use charms and certain symbols in their advertisements to attract teenagers to use their products. Sometimes there is an advertisement and sale of alcohol in an illegal manner which is put on Social Media and popular websites for youngsters, and here these are sold cheaply without asking for an ID or proof of age. This encourages these young users to buy it from these sources even though it is illegal.
Most companies producing and selling tobacco pay shops and supermarkets to display and sell their goods. Tobacco and alcohol companies spend vast sums of money on advertising as their main aim is to target youngsters and teenagers to the use of tobacco and alcohol. The enormity of the damaging effects of tobacco on humans is not a topic to be debated about. As per the World Health Organization, tobacco causes nearly 1 in 10 deaths of adults all over the world. This means that tobacco will be the cause of nearly a 650million deaths annually.
Huge sums of money are spent by advertising companies on the promotion of tobacco and alcohol but this in turn is damaging as it leads to a doubling of the diseases that already exist.
Impact of Alcohol advertising
Research conducted in this field implies and shows that apart from the effect that peers and parents have on youth regarding this subject, advertising, as well as marketing, also play a major role in affecting and impacting youngsters to adhere to this habit. Studies done globally have revealed that there is a rise in the drinking habits of children under age and the youth, who have been exposed to advertisements in this subject.
The debatable issue about the effect of alcohol advertising to be considered is that if youth are affected more by seeing these advertisements on a regular basis causally. Or is it because some advertisements have a long-lasting impact that changes the way they think regarding the consumption of alcoholic drinks? Studies done in this field indicate that the correlation between alcohol promotions and consumption is acute.
However, this impact of advertising and promotion, on teenagers and youngsters, was refuted by the ICAP which stated in 2010 to the WHO that there was no proof about the effect advertisement has on drinking and alcohol.
Is it time to ban alcohol advertising?
Young people and children are most affected by drinking alcohol. Alcohol slows down the development of the brain and this is enhanced by the fact that increasing advertisements on alcohol lead to greater chances of people drinking.
Many studies have been done and it as being found that there is a lot of evidence of the great effect media has on people to start drinking alcohol. This also includes the ones who are already addicted and by seeing these advertisements continuously, the habit stays with them. Many European countries except the UK have banned such types of advertisements. Since children and youngsters are smaller physically, they are more vulnerable to the negative effects of alcohol. There has been a large rise in the numbers of those who are already heavy and frequent drinkers to continue doing so. Dependence on alcohol leads to a weaker and lower mental well-being of a person. It also affects the outcomes on education and an increased crime rate in the young.
It was reported in the UK in 2014 that in the ages of 11- to 15-year-old children, at least one out of the 10 had consumed one drink of alcohol on a weekly basis. This average per week of alcohol consumption has nearly doubled. Drinking excessive alcohol poses a major risk to poorer health. It has been suggested that alcohol advertising should be restricted and perhaps even banned as this may help to lower and stop its consumption by children who are underage and the younger users.
Is it time to ban tobacco advertising?
In the past companies advertising for tobacco did it on television and the radio. Many companies also used favorite cartoon figures of children as a strategy for marketing to lure youngsters to get into the habit of smoking, but this is not done anymore. Advertising on the TV for tobacco is something that happened in the past, however, the restrictions on these advertisements and marketing may not be as effective as it seems.
The danger and effects of alcohol and tobacco
If a person smokes one packet of cigarettes a day which is said to have 4000 different types of chemicals, out of which at least 400 are toxic these make him extremely addicted to smoking. There are many health-related problems that smoking causes; smoking is also the major factor that leads to different diseases of the lungs, and heart, and also it can cause strokes. In fact, a smoker due to his heavy smoking habits can damage or destroy parts and organs in his body.
The danger of heavy drinking
It is believed that normally people who drink any alcoholic drink take just a beer or two per day. Drinking lightly might have some health benefits for the heart but drinking heavily can be cause of profoundly serious problems medically. People who just drink on a binge can also face acute problems like being intoxicated and they can start vomiting. This makes us believe and think that alcohol is a poisonous drink and should be banned. It is said that there nearly 3 million people die annually from the consumption and use of alcohol. Alcohol is also said to be the major cause of nearly 200 diseases.
Other problems caused by drinking are when a person drinks and drives. For example, if one drives a motorbike and is under the influence of alcohol, then he could easily fall from the motorcycle or crash onto something leading to a physical injury. When a person is under the influence of alcohol, they could perform violent acts or assault somebody or even do sexual activities which they would not do if not drunk. But to top it all the worst one is, it could lead to committing suicide especially if a person is depressed and gets drunk. Drinking alcohol also causes and aids in developing certain diseases which are chronic and initiates various health issues like high BP, disease of the liver, and others which are worse like cancer of the throat or mouth.
Alcohol in fact kills the whole body; it is believed that nearly 30 persons die every day in the UK due to the consumption of alcohol. In the past 4 years, many people have died due to alcohol consumption. Mostly, deaths were caused by people who drink and drive; nearly 10,000 people lost their lives because they were drinking and driving. Heavy drinking also impacts the heart adversely and it slows down the beats of the heart that lead to an increase in the deaths caused by alcohol consumption, therefore drinking heavily poses a danger to the heart as well.
The danger of heavy tobacco smoking
From the statistics related to smoking of 55 countries, at least 1 in 5 deaths in males was due to smoking or illnesses related to smoking. It seems that the region of sub-Sahara has lower rates of smoking and tobacco-related diseases but this is related to their lack of data on this subject.
It is estimated that in 2017 the number of smokers was 34 million in the USA, 7 million in the UK, and in Canada, the number was 5 million. From the time period 1962-2020, it is it is said that about 41mn people died in the UK USA, and Canada due to diseases caused by smoking. So, it means that for every 1, million cigarettes that were consumed the number of deaths is one in Canada and the USA and 1.3 in the UK.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that smoking and drinking have an immense adverse effect on the health and body of a person. In my opinion, advertisements related to alcohol or tobacco should not be allowed due to the health problems caused by them. It is also confirmed that all around the world a lot of deaths occur related to the above two.
UAE has banned all tobacco and alcohol advertisements, but other neighboring countries have not done so. For example, in Jordan even though they have a high level of deaths due to smoking, which are around 1500 deaths per year. This number will increase if advertisements continue. Personally, I think alcohol and tobacco advertisements should be banned in all countries due to the negative effect they have on consumers. The number of deaths annually is huge, and it also destroys the life of underage children and youth who consume alcohol or smoke cigarettes. Even though it may seem that banning these advertisements will take away some freedom of the press and media but looking at the larger picture it is for the betterment of society, especially underage youngsters who consume these two products not knowing the long-lasting negative and harmful effects they will have in the future and the long run. Therefore, I strongly believe that tobacco and alcohol companies should be banned from advertising their products in any form.
References
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7093109/
- https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/drugtreat-pubs-front5-fa-toc~drugtreat-pubs-front5-fa-secb~drugtreat-pubs-front5-fa-secb-4~drugtreat-pubs-front5-fa-secb-4-4
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215402/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21852637/
- https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/nyu-jat021920.php
- https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/assets/global/pdfs/en/APS_healthimpact.pdf
- https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/tobacco_industry/marketing/index.htm
- http://www.camy.org/resources/fact-sheets/alcohol-advertising-and-youth/
- https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-9-51
- https://www.cochrane.org/CD010704/ADDICTN_does-banning-or-restricting-advertising-for-alcohol-result-in-less-drinking-of-alcohol
- https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/alcohol
- https://www.alcoholrehabguide.org/resources/medical-conditions/alcohol-related-death/
