Watch a movie at a theatre nowadays and you are likely to be greeted by advertisements depicting the dire effects of smoking.
The most recent spot about the problems caused by tobacco use appeared in January, the work of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The camera captures a man smoking a cigarette, then X-rays into his lungs, and the viewer is shown precisely what happens when the artery leading to the heart is filled with whitish mulch.
But it’s not the only video of its kind. The government also released a version for beedis.
It has also syndicated the two videos in 17 Indian languages.
Given the effort and expense involved in creating an advertisement, it’s only natural that the government would want to cut corners, particularly when an ad campaign seems to be working.
But the identical ad is also available in Russian, played on Bangladeshi televisions in Bengali and dubbed in English with an Australian accent.
These advertisements are party of several global campaigns run by the World Lung Foundation, an organisation that seeks to reduce tobacco consumption across the world.
A lot of funding for the WLF comes from Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York, founder and head of the Bloomberg group of companies, and the sixteenth richest man in the world. One of his companies, Bloomberg Philanthropies, helps organisations and countries that want to address a range of social issues, from tobacco use to road safety.
Bloomberg successfully instituted several anti-tobacco laws in New York during his three stints as mayor. Nandita Mukutla, country director of the World Lung Foundation, says that Bloomberg Philanthropies turned its attention to developing countries when it recognised that tobacco consumption would grow massively in places where laws pertaining to tobacco were relatively weak.
According to data from Bloomberg Philanthropies, two-third of all tobacco users are in developing countries. The WLF, which focuses on health communication, is one of six anti-tobacco organisations helped by Bloomberg.
“There are certain indicators of success for tobacco control campaigns,” said Murukutla, who is also the organisation’s global head of research and evaluation. “One of these is creating negative emotions. The tobacco industry would have you believe that it makes you sophisticated. What we want to do is air campaigns that show the reality of its effects.”
Anti-tobacco campaigns do seem to work. In January, a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association said over the last 50 years various anti-smoking campaigns across the US had played a role in the prevention of at least eight million premature deaths.
Among the more powerful messages is how tobacco use harms the users’ health and the health of those around them, particularly of children.
The artery campaign, for instance, was developed in Australia and sent to other countries after it tested positively. Their most successful campaign, which worked across several countries, including India, was called Sponge. It showed the amount of tar that builds up in a smoker’s lungs after a period of smoking.
In addition to the advertisments, WLF creates targeted campaigns relevant to each country’s needs and society. The Mukesh campaign, developed in association with cancer surgeon Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi of Voice of Tobacco Victims in 2011, speaks with a cancer patient who later succumbs to the disease. This campaign is particularly successful in rural areas, but is not the kind that can be packaged for other countries.
“Tobacco victims are never made a part of the campaign,” said Chaturvedi. “They are not even considered stakeholders. For me this is a human rights issue. We can keep talking about statistics, but we need to bring those who are losing their lives into the campaign.”
For now, the campaign only wants to create a level playing field.
“Picking up the habit is a personal decision, but because tobacco is addictive, leaving it is not,” added Chaturvedi. “The government is not prohibiting tobacco, nor does it have any intention to. Our only strategy is to deglamourise and reduce the demand for tobacco.”
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The most recent spot about the problems caused by tobacco use appeared in January, the work of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The camera captures a man smoking a cigarette, then X-rays into his lungs, and the viewer is shown precisely what happens when the artery leading to the heart is filled with whitish mulch.
But it’s not the only video of its kind. The government also released a version for beedis.
It has also syndicated the two videos in 17 Indian languages.
Given the effort and expense involved in creating an advertisement, it’s only natural that the government would want to cut corners, particularly when an ad campaign seems to be working.
But the identical ad is also available in Russian, played on Bangladeshi televisions in Bengali and dubbed in English with an Australian accent.
These advertisements are party of several global campaigns run by the World Lung Foundation, an organisation that seeks to reduce tobacco consumption across the world.
A lot of funding for the WLF comes from Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York, founder and head of the Bloomberg group of companies, and the sixteenth richest man in the world. One of his companies, Bloomberg Philanthropies, helps organisations and countries that want to address a range of social issues, from tobacco use to road safety.
Bloomberg successfully instituted several anti-tobacco laws in New York during his three stints as mayor. Nandita Mukutla, country director of the World Lung Foundation, says that Bloomberg Philanthropies turned its attention to developing countries when it recognised that tobacco consumption would grow massively in places where laws pertaining to tobacco were relatively weak.
According to data from Bloomberg Philanthropies, two-third of all tobacco users are in developing countries. The WLF, which focuses on health communication, is one of six anti-tobacco organisations helped by Bloomberg.
“There are certain indicators of success for tobacco control campaigns,” said Murukutla, who is also the organisation’s global head of research and evaluation. “One of these is creating negative emotions. The tobacco industry would have you believe that it makes you sophisticated. What we want to do is air campaigns that show the reality of its effects.”
Anti-tobacco campaigns do seem to work. In January, a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association said over the last 50 years various anti-smoking campaigns across the US had played a role in the prevention of at least eight million premature deaths.
Among the more powerful messages is how tobacco use harms the users’ health and the health of those around them, particularly of children.
The artery campaign, for instance, was developed in Australia and sent to other countries after it tested positively. Their most successful campaign, which worked across several countries, including India, was called Sponge. It showed the amount of tar that builds up in a smoker’s lungs after a period of smoking.
In addition to the advertisments, WLF creates targeted campaigns relevant to each country’s needs and society. The Mukesh campaign, developed in association with cancer surgeon Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi of Voice of Tobacco Victims in 2011, speaks with a cancer patient who later succumbs to the disease. This campaign is particularly successful in rural areas, but is not the kind that can be packaged for other countries.
“Tobacco victims are never made a part of the campaign,” said Chaturvedi. “They are not even considered stakeholders. For me this is a human rights issue. We can keep talking about statistics, but we need to bring those who are losing their lives into the campaign.”
For now, the campaign only wants to create a level playing field.
“Picking up the habit is a personal decision, but because tobacco is addictive, leaving it is not,” added Chaturvedi. “The government is not prohibiting tobacco, nor does it have any intention to. Our only strategy is to deglamourise and reduce the demand for tobacco.”
