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Tobacco Advertising--How they get you hooked

Tobacco Advertising In China

While theoretically tobacco advertising is banned in China, to the casual observer what the ban really means, is a bit of a mystery. The concept of law in China is quite different from what we are accustomed to in the US. Like the flow of traffic, it’s very amorphous and organic. Whatever works at the moment is the rule of the moment …

So when China signed the WHO FCTC agreement, including a ban on tobacco advertising, the "powers that be" found a way to make a last minute exception and allowed tobacco advertising on the Formula 1 racing cars in the first Formula 1 races to be held in China (in Shanghai).

We see huge “corporate-image ads” for the largest tobacco companies. We don’t see anyone smoking in the ads, we just see packs of wolves, stampeding bulls, a serene sculpture of a stone lion. There’s no clue as to what the product is. For children, this form of advertising is even more insidious. They develop warm feelings about the ads, and when they discover the product, they are already naturally drawn to it.