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Tobacco Advertising in Cambodia [02-15-02] Phnom Penh Post By Sophie Wilson Driving past Phnom Penh's 30 meter billboards you could be forgiven for thinking the only thing the city sells is tobacco. Images of affluent Westerners with their cigarette of choice bombard the travelling public. A dozen leathery Marlboro men from the American West saddle up on the skyline, while Mild Seven's sporty types are portrayed as happy and healthy, riding mountain bikes over snowy peaks. Meanwhile, children playing in Hun Sen Park are watched over by the sophisticated, cigarette wielding Davidoff man with the enigmatic slogan, "The more you know..." Ironically, what people know about tobacco in Cambodia is largely dictated by what cigarette companies choose to tell them. "Promotion girls" give away free cigarettes, umbrellas adorned with company logos shade popcorn sellers, TV and radio stations push the merits of smoking, and live concerts are sponsored by local brands. However, it seems that most of the city's residents would like the Marlboro man and his fellow smokers to ride off into the sunset: WHO figures show three-quarters of Phnom Penhois want an end to tobacco advertising in the capital. That, say experts, would be a good start. "[Cigarette companies] know that developing countries like the Western style," says Po Samnang of the National Center for Health Promotion (NCHP). "The billboards have to come down, especially those in Phnom Penh. They convey a bad image." As tobacco controls take hold in the West, cigarette companies have focused more on developing nations. An August, 2001 report from the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) that examined the prevalence of smoking in Cambodia stated multinationals have targeted Cambodia as "a prime market". There are next to no regulations governing the marketing and sale of cigarettes in Cambodia. Although government media are banned from advertising tobacco and companies are responsible for affixing a small health warning to cigarette packets, there is no age limit on sales and no regulation on public advertising. In such an environment, tobacco companies increasingly restricted by regulations elsewhere have carte blanche to fire at will from their highly funded arsenal of campaigns. The aggressive marketing techniques used by cigarette companies in Cambodia coincide with some of the worst smoking statistics in the world. Figures from Indochina Research, a private research firm, show 69 percent of men and 10 percent of women in Cambodia smoke. The numbers are even higher in rural areas: previous ADRA and Ministry of Health (MoH) calculations put the figure for men near 85 percent. ADRA's report explained that tobacco consumption has "penetrated deep in the Cambodian culture". Cigarettes are given as gifts to Buddhist monks and wedding guests. They are used as bribes, as a substitute for money, even to keep mosquitoes and insects at bay. Yel Daravuth is head of ADRA's Tobacco or Health Program and a long term campaigner for tobacco controls. He says most people in Cambodia know smoking is bad for the health, but simply don't realize how bad. Many doctors, he says, still haven't grasped the serious health impacts of smoking. Inadequate health records in Cambodia mean it is impossible to find precise figures on smoking-related diseases, but a 1997 report from the MoH and WHO, based on international figures, estimated 5,800 smoking-related deaths in Cambodia annually. Curbing the Epidemic, a World Bank publication on the relationship between advertising and the consumption of cigarettes, says while smoking related illnesses were once an affliction of developed countries, they are now rapidly shifting to the developing world. It predicts that by 2020, seven out of every ten people killed by smoking will be in low and middle-income nations. NCHP's Samnang says people have yet to realize the enormous impact smoking is having and will have on the country. "People here always focus on HIV, AIDS and TB and not on the hidden dangers of smoking," he says. The MoH has been unsuccess-ful in its attempts since 1993 to ban tobacco
advertising, even though other countries in the region, notably Thailand
and Vietnam, have managed to do so. Figures from Indochina Research show that 13 percent of advertising revenue for TV and print media comes from cigarette companies. With an annual advertising budget of $4 million, tobacco companies easily outspend the country's small anti-smoking lobby, whose visible advertising budget is under $10,000. That is less than Davidoff spent placing its billboard in a children's park. Peou Yada, under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Information, agrees that cigarette companies have free rein to do whatever they want in Cambodia. While "people are more important than the revenue from cigarette advertisements," Yada says he is also concerned about the impact an advertising ban would have on broadcast media. That said, it appears the unlimited firepower of cigarette companies in Cambodia may be coming to an end. The government recently formed an inter-ministerial committee that within two years should have drafted a law regulating tobacco. WHO's tobacco control officer, Greg Hallen, says that the committee will help prepare local efforts to comply with WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), a global treaty on tobacco regulation due to be signed May 2003. The convention, which involves 191 member nations, is likely to include regulations on tobacco marketing, taxation, labeling, smuggling, and controlling smoking in public places. In October 2001, Samnang, Yada and Daravuth attended the third FCTC negotiation meeting in Geneva. They are upbeat about what it will mean for tobacco control in Cambodia, but Daravuth warns that the country should not rely on the FCTC to ban advertising. "I think [the FCTC] is a good idea but it is not good enough," he says. "Cambodia has to be willing to ban advertising itself. We cannot wait for the FCTC." The three main tobacco companies, meanwhile, are running a worldwide self-regulation program in a bid to improve their poor reputation. By the end of this year Philip Morris, BAT and Japan Tobacco will apply so-called International Marketing Standards that aim at responsible promotion of their products. Manmindar Singh, BAT's regional trade manager, says the standards will ensure companies do not market cigarettes at children or non-smokers. Promotion has been and will be aimed solely at current adult smokers, he says. For instance, advertising at events in enclosed spaces will be permitted only where three-quarters of the audience is 18 or older. TV adverts will be limited to adult programs and age-restricted movies. With billboards, though, he admits the policy is more difficult. "I cannot envision a situation where you have a billboard that is not accessible to anyone aged under 18," says Singh. Nonetheless, BAT spokesman Kun Lim says that his company has already started removing billboards from Phnom Penh. They will be replaced, he says, with fewer, smaller and more responsible adverts that do not use young models or well-known figures. The voluntary standards have drawn a cynical response from tobacco control groups which claim the companies are simply jumping before they are pushed in an attempt to undermine externally imposed regulation. WHO decried the standards as "neither new nor effective". "We know from research that voluntary standards haven't worked,
and that only a total ban does," says WHO's Hallen. One school, one hospital, eight pagodas, all smoke free. By global standards these figures are tiny, but with soaring smoking statistics and a vacuum of tobacco regulations in Cambodia, the steady increase of smoke free zones is a big step forward. On February 4 last year, Samrong Andet pagoda in Phnom Penh declared itself smoke free. One year on, chief monk and tobacco educator Seun Than says monks from other provinces who visit Samrong Andet are filtering the message through to other pagodas. ADRA worked with Samrong Andet in its quest to become Cambodia's first smoke free pagoda and has since helped seven other pagodas. A large proportion of Cambodia's Buddhist monks smoke, with gifts of cigarettes common. On average, states an ADRA report, they are given seven packs a month. ADRA's Yel Daravuth says combating smoking among monks, who have a great deal of influence in Cambodian society, involves warning them about the health hazards and asking communities not to give them cigarettes. "Working in this area offers a lot of challenges day by day," says Daravuth. "It is frustrating, but we are keeping strong." |
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