Tobacco Marketing in Developing Countries

489 billion, as well as over $23 billion daily for advertisement and promotion of tobacco products when compared to the five largest industries that are not engaged in tobacco manufacturing that spent $600. 8 million on promotion and marketing of its products. Majority of these tobacco manufacturers have targeted developing countries for market purposes of their tobacco and related products. According to the WHO report that was released recently, tobacco marketing has spread extensively and massively like wildfire in over 16 countries, as well as 462 communities (Abdullah and Husten, 2004). The report also indicates that people living in developing countries are more exposed to intense, as well as aggressive marketing of tobacco and its related products than those individuals living in developed countries. This is contrary to the higher income nations where tobacco marketing and advertisement have declined rapidly (Blecher, 2008).

About 80% of world`s one billion tobacco smokers are found in the middle, as well as low-income countries where the figure continues to rise rapidly. This has been contributed significantly by the strategies that tobacco industries have implemented in marketing and promotion of its products in developing countries that has fueled the rapid use of tobacco and its related products. The rapid increase in the utilization of tobacco and cigarettes have caused enormous, as well as growing public health predicament in developing countries. This is according to the report released by the WHO. 8% in Africa, Eastern Europe, as well as the Middle East, 23% in Canada and Latin America, and 10% in Asia. According to 2008 annual of the company, the firm increased its cigarette volume by about 2.

5% which approximate to 869. 8 billion cigarettes (Blecher, 2008). Tobacco The marketing and advertisement of tobacco and related products by tobacco industries have increased in developing countries since the market for their products in developed countries such as US, Great Britain, Sweden and Canada have substantially reduced. The long campaign and awareness against tobacco and cigarette smoking in high-income countries have paid dividends since the rate of tobacco consumptions have substantially reduced. This has also encouraged tobacco companies and industries to look for other opportunities elsewhere to increase profits and market for their products. Blecher (2008) suggest that tobacco marketing and advertisement which have been heavily regulated and controlled in the US and other European countries has become rampant and pervasive in developing countries such as Pakistan, Zimbabwe, as well as India, despite the WHO holding anti-smoking campaign that encouraged all the governments to limit the marketing and promotion, as well as cheap availability of tobacco in their countries.

Tobacco advertisement covers 81% more in developing countries when compared to high-income countries (Blecher, 2008). The major target for tobacco advertisement involves children. The Ghanaian government has done a remarkable job to regulate tobacco smoking in recent times. In the past, there were numerous and huge billboards for advertisement of diverse brands of tobacco in the country (Jha and Chaloupka, 2000).  Furthermore, tobacco companies funded sporting activities, beauty pageants, as well as music shows to attract more consumers for their products. The climax of this promotion and advertisement involved painting of large portrait in front of the large Ghanaian market of Kaneshie located in Accra, as well as Kejeta located in Kumasi. These paintings were advertised by British American Tobacco. ” To achieve this, they developed advertisement strategies that would appeal and lure young people to cigarette smoking (Mackay and Crofton, 1996).

Tobacco companies also decided to target young people because young people have a strong ability to influence one another and majority of them are not stable and consistent in making proper and critical decision in their life. Majority of the youth are accommodative and like experimenting as a result of their curiosity. The tobacco companies, therefore, needed a new group of smokers to sustain, as well as maintain tobacco and cigarette sales, substituting those consumers who have either abandoned or died of smoking. PMI has utilized marketing activities like concert funding that appeal and attract young people (Mackay and Crofton, 1996). Large tobacco companies have opposed this notion by claiming that they have advertised and promoted tobacco to encourage adults to make preference by choosing appropriate brands.

Mackay and Crofton (1996) suggested many scholar and researchers have described the increase and spread of tobacco consumption in the middle, as well as low-income nations as “epidemic” referring to the 1994 research study that was conducted on tobacco smokers for a period of forty-years in which they discovered that half of the tobacco smokers died from smoking-related illnesses. The researchers predict that more millions of people could die as a result of tobacco and cigarette smoking by the year 2020. Furthermore, they also estimate that majority of the smoking-associated deaths in the coming years, about 70%, will be from the middle, as well as low-income countries. It is more depressing and frustrating that ten years after the initiation of the 2013 convention strategies to curb tobacco and cigarette consumption in the developing nations, tobacco marketing, and advertisement remains predominant (Freeman et al.

Some developing countries have suffered enormous economic loss as a result of increased costs of health-care, as well as low productivity due to tobacco-related diseases and premature deaths. In developing nations such as US, Britain, Canada and other European countries, the net annual cost concerning health-care which is attributed to tobacco consumption has been approximated to be ranging between 6%, as well as 15% of the overall health-care costs. In the US, between 1995 and 1999, tobacco consumption accounted for about 440 000early deaths annually. The country also lost about $157 billion annually to health- associated problems involving tobacco consumption. Furthermore, the US also lost approximately $81. This trend substantially increased between 1985, as well as 2000, when the actual price per tonne declined by approximately 37%. (Yach and Bettcher, 2000) suggest that majority of nations are overall importers of tobacco leaf, as well as tobacco products.

Therefore, they suffered a substantial loss of millions annually in foreign exchange. In 2002, about 19 countries experienced negative balance involving trade in tobacco and related products of more than $100million. These developing countries include Viet Nam, Nigeria, Cambodia, as well as Malaysia. Also, there is minimal awareness and campaign involving the effects of tobacco consumption regarding health in developing countries. Therefore, this has encouraged the industry to invest heavily in marketing and advertisement of their products in developing countries (Yach and Bettcher, 2000). To curb the repercussion of tobacco consumption in developing countries, the government in these countries should ban marketing, promotion, as well as advertisement of tobacco and its related products to minimize consumption. Comprehensive bans in high-income countries such as France, New Zealand, as well as Finland have substantially minimized consumption of tobacco per capita by about 14% to 17%.