Shanghai lawmakers slam 'Love China' cigarette ads

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-19 16:47

SHANGHAI -- China's love-hate relationship with tobacco is flaring up in Shanghai, where local lawmakers are considering banning patriotic billboards advertising cigarettes.

The billboards, carrying the expression "Love China," are a play on one variation of the word China in Chinese, "Chunghwa," which is also the name of a top cigarette brand made by Shanghai Tobacco (Group) Co.

The Chinese characters for both are identical.

The scarlet Love China billboards and posters feature a gleaming golden picture of Beijing's historic Tiananmen Gate, the entrance to the Forbidden City, but no images of cigarettes.

They also carry the warning: "Smoking can damage your health" -- signaling that the slogan refers both to China and to the cigarette brand.

The topic cropped up last week during the annual session of the local legislature, when some lawmakers proposed that the billboards be banned, the state-run newspaper Shanghai Daily and other reports said.

"The slogan 'Love Our China' is good, but when producers put 'Smoking can damage your health' beside it, the message amounts to an advertisement," the Shanghai Daily quoted local lawmaker Li Ming as saying.

"All advertising related to tobacco or tobacco companies must be banned," Li said.

Phone calls to Shanghai Tobacco's marketing department rang unanswered Monday.

China has the world's largest population of smokers at 350 million, and the government receives a large amount of revenues from state-owned tobacco companies. But health risks from smoking are widely acknowledged to be a serious public health problem.

Shanghai banned tobacco billboards during last summer's Beijing Olympic games, but has allowed them since. The city has begun cracking down on big billboards as it prepares to host the 2010 World Expo.

China has signed the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which commits it to banning all types of tobacco advertising by 2011.

Shanghai Tobacco is building a $730 million new production line for its Chunghwa brand that will have an annual capacity of 50 billion cigarettes when completed. The plan is considered a major city construction project that is expected to yield more 50 billion yuan ($7.3 billion) in tax revenues and create more than 500 jobs, according to state media reports.