[Intl-tobacco] Tobacco on Trial: Hungary: The taste of freedom (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Tobacco on Trial: Hungary: The  taste of freedom
Source: BBC Online, Wednesday, 8/2/00

After the fall of communism over a decade ago the big western tobacco
companies moved into Eastern Europe to carve out new markets for their
brands.  Matthew Chapman reports from Hungary.

BAT's Kent cigarettes - one of the most popular brands in Hungary

Ask a local person for directions to the theatre in the beautiful medieval
town of Pecs in south eastern Hungary and the reply could go something
like this:

=91Walk past the British American Tobacco Homeless Hostel until you get to
the BAT Media Centre at the university. Go on until you arrive at the BAT
Health Centre, take a left and the BAT town theatre should be right in
front.=92.

A sponsorship board outside Pecs theatre

Cigarette manufacturing conglomerate British American Tobacco is much more
than just another employer in this ancient town.

Its presence is everywhere, even in the air. The smell of tobacco wafts
around the town on the warm summer breeze.

The British owned company is typical of western firms who moved in en
masse across Eastern Europe after the end of communism over a decade ago
looking for new markets.

They were welcomed with open arms by countries desperate for investment
and western technical know how.

Smoking was always common in Eastern Europe but rarely associated with
glamour.

Looking to open up new markets the tobacco companies put up advertising
boards calling on consumers to "taste the freedom" or "test the west".

"=92The taste of freedom=92, this is a standard billboard all over eastern
Europe and its in red white and blue, they literally use the colours of
the American flag, they use all the images of our patriotism," says former
US Ambassador to Hungary Mark Palmer.

"I just think this is criminal what they are doing. They have stolen
America."

Mark Palmer - outspoken critic of the tobacco companies

As the years have gone by and consumers become more sophisticated the
tobacco firms have developed more sophisticated methods to build their
image and their brands.

Corporate sponsorship is growing and in Hungary tobacco money flows into
schools, student scholarship programmes, the Red Cross, police and fire
brigades to name just a few.

=2E.if the cash strapped state should decide to crack down on smoking it ma=
y
find it cannot afford to lose so much funding from the manufacturers.
              =20

Now critics say the process has gone to far. In Hungary companies like BAT
are investing millions of dollars not only in advertising but supporting
essential services.

The anti smoking lobby worries that if the cash strapped state should
decide to crack down on smoking it may find it cannot afford to lose so
much funding from the manufacturers.

There are real fears that Hungary, where over 40 per cent of all adults
smoke cigarettes, is being crippled by the effects of tobacco.

Magazines - dozens of ads for cigarette brands

Some 36,000 people, that is nearly one person every fifteen minutes, die
every year from smoking related illnesses.

The government is having difficulty funding a health service which is
burdened with a 150 per cent increase in lung cancer cases among men and a
200 per cent increase for women.

The result say the World Health Organization is that by 2020 at least 22
per cent of all deaths in the former communist states would be
attributable to tobacco.

A five per cent rise since 1995.

Mindful of this the Hungarian government acted last year and introduced a
new law which banned smoking in places such as schools, hospitals and
train stations.

Soon all restaurants will have to provide no smoking areas.

While it is a small step it is nevertheless significant as the country=92s
first real attempt to grapple with one of the west=92s more dubious exports
to the former Communist countries of Europe.