Government involvement is often a subject of controversy and raises questions on when it should and shouldn’t be involved. There can always be a case made either way based on personal viewpoint and what issue is being discussed; this is no different when looking at the Indian Government’s deliberation over tobacco marketing and the usage of tobacco impacting their economy and population. The Government of India proposed bans on tobacco advertising leading to arguments for and against, it is however important to analyze both sides those in favor an those against, and any conflicts of interest that may be involved.
Taking a closer look at those in favor of the tobacco advertising bans there are several factors to be considered. The Government of India wasn’t the first country to deliberate over such a decision, but rather was following in the footsteps of countries like France, Finland, and Norway all of whom had already chosen to enact advertising bans on tobacco. One of the first arguments to be made in favor of the advertising bans was that the government had the right to step in and protect the overall health of its citizens “citing examples like cocaine, a drug banned the world over”. In 1981 in Belgium then 1991 in France court rulings were made declaring that bans on tobacco advertising were in fact not unconstitutional, “as it was based on the need to protect public health, and did not curtail the freedom of trade”. Questions were then brought up regarding what
Tobacco has existed for long as we have known about history, but due to the negative effects of it to the broader community Tobacco has sparked greater controversy across the globe. Many people argue that it is the government’s responsibility to protect the individual but on the contrary some disagree and believe it’s up to the individual. This essay will elaborate above mentioned aspects and lead to a logical conclusion.
Giving the health hazard that arises from tobacco, I am of the opinion that tobacco advertising be ban completely in Indian. Ethics is a system of moral principles governing the appropriate conduct of a person or a group. It is a way of being human and having a feeling of compassion, sympathy or regard for others the way we have for ourselves. There is this famous saying of Abraham Lincoln “When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.” Managers of tobacco companies cannot pretend they do not know that tobacco is dangerous for our health. Ethics is fundamental in any profession and is an integral part of any successful business today. If in our subconscious mind we are not comfortable it mean the consequences of our action are unethical: then we are doing bad business. . Albert Schweitzer says, “Ethics is the activity of man
The Government of India has created an anti-tobacco plan to tackle the growing issues of tobacco, health concerns, and rising death toll. Their first goal was to eliminate advertising as this was perceived to encourage the youth to take up the dangerous habit. This ban posed ethical and commercial challenges for both sides of the argument. The government has the power to pass laws to help prevent people from smoking and protect its people. They found the ethical decision was to use this power by creating and
Should tobacco advertising be restricted? This is a very controversial issue. There is the idea that young children that smoke started smoking because of advertisements, but there is also the idea that children start smoking for other reasons. Many big, well-known tobacco companies like RJ Reynolds are being sued for their advertisements. On Monday April 20th, 1998 the jury heard a testimony from Lynn Beasly, the marketing vice president of the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company. The courts believed that the advertisement was directed towards children under the age of 18, due to a document from the RJ Reynolds Board of Directors showing that they set a goal to increase the company's market share among 14
Tobacco ads have been barred from television for over twenty years. Young children don’t need the influence to smoke or dip, considering they’ll have enough peer pressure to do so later in life. By essentially censoring television ads, the government decreases the advertising power of tobacco companies. However, there are simply some things that should not be censored. When censored, any sort of art loses its meaning. When the government tries to censor art, such as music, paintings, digital art, movies, or TV shows, people can no longer truly express their feelings or convey the message they were attempting to portray.
Tobacco companies have been in a battle with anti-smokers for a while about regulating tobacco, and there has been a war between tobacco companies and anti tobacco crusaders, because of regulating tobacco and some lawsuits. For one viewpoint regulating tobacco would be a good thing to do, anti tobacco crusaders are saying that regulation of tobacco is necessary to protect public health; on the other hand the other viewpoint is say that the tobacco companies are saying “regulation of tobacco will do more harm than good.”
Guns do not kill people; people kill people. Cigarettes do not kill people; people who choose to smoke are killing themselves. The health risks of using tobacco are common knowledge. It is a known fact that if someone smokes their chance of getting lung cancer is increased drastically, yet so many Americans choose to do so. The FDA is taking steps to tighten the rules of tobacco marketing, some of these rules will include prohibiting self-service tobacco displays in stores, restricting vending-machine sales, and forbidding most free samples of tobacco products. (Reid pg. 1) These are just small hits to the big tobacco industry, but the FDA has no intention of stopping there. The question that comes to mind is, why attack the advertising
The intervention of the government defies one’s one will regarding health. The legalization of advertisements and the production of tobacco should go hand in
The following statistics gave a solid argument as to why the government of India was on track in banning tobacco advertisement. In 1981, the Supreme Court (of Appeal) in Belgium gave its ruling that a ban on tobacco advertising was not unconstitutional. In 1991 the French Constitutional Council declared that the French ban on advertising tobacco products was not unconstitutional as it was based on the need to protect public health and did not curtail the freedom of trade.
The tobacco industry has been working to influence the personal behavior of individuals as well as in national structures which extend across disparate government sectors to use tobacco products despite the known risks. Since interaction is prohibited between the federal government and the tobacco industry by the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and the Civil Service Commission – Department of Health Joint
Surprised, criminalized and taxed into submission. Tobacco was once the cash crop of our great nation, upon which are original founders made their mark on history. Yet since the upper-middle class set their sights to smoking in the 1970’s, it has become demonized and socially unacceptable. Furthermore, with the increase of “sin taxes”, tobacco is one of the highest taxed commodities in the United States. The overarching question is, should the government be so heavily involved in the private affairs of responsible adults? No, they should not.
There are several ways through which government can control the usage of Tobacco. One of them is that government can impose huge tax on tobacco products by which people will move out of tobacco. It can also be argued that government should ensure smoking should not be high-hand in advertisements
On Feb 6, 2001 Government of India (GOI) dropped a bombshell on the tobacco Industry when it announced that it would shortly table a bill banning Tobacco Companies from advertising their products and sponsoring sports and cultural events. The objective of such a ban was to discourage adolescents from consuming tobacco products and also arm the Government with powers to launch an anti-Tobacco Program.
ITC has a quite favorable impact of political factors in the FMCG and Hotel business. Indian budget of tax regulation for the tobacco is 55%, which makes the company to spend the most the profit in the excuse duty. Advertising in the mass media is not allowed where as it can be done in the point of sale with a certain restrictions. Government of India also imposes the packing and labeling on the tobacco products like health-warning labels is to be pictorial and text for safety of the consumers. The cigarettes company operates in India with intolerable political factors, ruling party often changes the regulations keeping in mind about the safety of people but affects the companies like ITC business majorly. Which is also shown with potential customers are reducing day by day because of the price, results in lower sales. Apart from the government’s pressure, NGO’s in India are against the tobacco consumption and which in turn makes the selling of tobacco to consumers becomes tougher for the company. Though all the huge pressure company still able to make 65% of sales in the country and almost it’s the monopoly brand for the people for the consumption of
I spent the past nine months in India (August 2015- April 2016) and one big difference I noticed from the USA, is that India did not support commercials on TV or public figures promoting the alcohol and tobacco industries. Before every movie on TV they show two health warning commercials with children in them asking their parents to stop smoking and showing the devastation smoking can cause a family. India is a very family oriented society so it 's easy to understand why they have chosen to make the non-smoking commercials in this way.