Stop tobacco commercials

The control on tobacco commercials may reduce the earnings of local treasuries, but in the long run it can benefit the majority of the people, says an article on the website of Xinhua News Agency. The following is an excerpt:

Some deputies to the second session of the 13th Shanghai municipal people's congress complained that some tobacco companies have tactfully avoided regulations and laws to make their advertisements in the media look like they are for public good.

Although China has joined the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the tobacco advertisements and sponsorships are yet to be banned completely in China. The curb on tobacco advertisements has instead triggered innovations by tobacco companies to disguise tobacco advertisements as public service commercials.

But tobacco contains no elements of public service and we must totally ban these commercials for the sake of people's health. But the problem is that regulators seem to turn a blind eye toward these commercials, which shows the loopholes in our management of tobacco advertisements.

To ban these improvised tobacco commercials, we must first of all get rid of provincial protectionism, cutting off the interest chains between tobacco companies and local governments. Also, we should strictly implement the regulations and laws to plug the loopholes in management.

(China Daily 01/20/2009 page8)