Switzerland, long a safe haven for tobacco ads, weighs a ban
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
The images are jarring to visitors: happy, glamorous couples smoking together in a cafe, packs of cigarettes opened invitingly, rugged Western landscapes that evoke the Marlboro Man.While many countries have long banned cigarette advertising, it has lived on in Switzerland, where loose regulations on the sale and marketing of tobacco products make the country an outlier in much of the Western world. The ads adorn billboards on city streets, are shown in movie theaters, and are ubiquitous at sports and cultural events like Montreux’s famed jazz festival. But this weekend, much of that may start to fade away as Swiss voters decide whether to place restrictions on tobacco ads that would effectively ban them in public spaces.“We want to protect young people and ensure tobacco prevention efforts are not undermined through advertising,” said Hans Stöckli, who is president of the committee behind the initiative.Switzerland has been unable to ratify the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, despite signing it in 2004, because of its insufficient restrictions on sponsorship and advertising. The United States has also not ratified the convention. “I trust that citizens can themselves decide whether they want to consume tobacco products or not, and there is no need for a superstate that regulates the sector more strongly,” he said.Anti-smoking advocates have also accused the Federal Council of cozying up to the tobacco industry. They pointed to a statement in which the council said that the initiative was welcome from a public health perspective, but that it “had to weigh the public health interests against those of the economy” and supported limiting “advertising to an extent that is acceptable to the tobacco industry.” Martin Kuonen, director of Swiss Cigarette, an association that includes Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco and British American Tobacco, said the tobacco industry was “fully in favor of the protection of minors” and agreed with the idea of setting a minimum age for buying its products.But Kuonen said the tougher legislation proposed by the initiative went too far. “It is a de facto advertising ban,” he said, because children can potentially be exposed to advertisements anywhere. He said the industry strongly opposed this, as “adults will indirectly also be affected.”