Tobacco Ads

As a developing country India became concerned with the growing consumption of tobacco in the country. In order to stop this growing trend they decided to impose a ban on all tobacco advertisements in India in addition tobacco companies could no longer sponsor sports or cultural events. The ban caused a lot of mixed feeling with people in favor and against the ban, in this essay both views will be analyzed along with the conflict of interest as it pertains to the Indian government. As explained in the case study Ban on Tobacco Ads by the Government of India, those in favor of the ban argued that it was not unusual to pass such bans as other countries had already done it. They also said that the government was allowed to act in the interest …show more content…
Furthermore, tobacco companies also argued that they did not market their products to young people but to those who were already smokers so that they could make an informed brand choice (Morris, 2001, p.3). A survey done in 1998 by the Indian Market Research Bureau backed this information up since no one stated that they were induced to smoke by advertising. The effectiveness of the ban was also doubted since some believed that the ban would have no effect on other tobacco products like beedi and ghutkas which made up 84% of the sector. They believed the lack of advertisements would lead the consumers to buy less refined forms of tobacco which are more harmful. Others claimed that it would not be efficient because they could not control advertising on foreign media and that cigarette advertising and the consumption of them were only weakly linked …show more content…
On one hand they faced the ethical responsibility to keep adolescents and adults from consuming this harmful product, on the other hand tobacco played a big role in their economy. The tobacco industry contributed greatly to the “State Exchequer in the year 2000-01 it contributed to about Rs.8000 crores in excise revenue “(Morris, 2001, p.1) which was an important amount considering their financial situation. However, tobacco not only affected the economy positively but also negatively by increasing the number of sick people due to tobacco consumption which in effect caused the government to pay more money in healthcare. One of the many things they also had to consider was the impact on employment which as mentioned before would not lower but increase. The government could not only think about the economy they had to think about the good of the people as a whole and regulate the use of tobacco as they would with any other harmful product. According to The World Health Organization tobacco accounted for 4.023 million deaths in 1998 and the number was expected to rise to 8.4 million in 2020 (Morris, 2001, p.2). In banning tobacco advertisements, the government saw an effective way of lowering consumption and beginning an anti-tobacco program, but India is the third largest tobacco producer in the world and also has one