[Intl-tobacco] Ukraine: Kyiv Takes Major Step Toward Banning Tobacco Ads

[Robert Weissman]

Ukraine: Kyiv Takes Major Step Toward Banning Tobacco Ads
by Tony Wesolowsky
Source: Radio Free Europe, 2001-11-21

Ukraine's parliament has passed
one of the most comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising anywhere
in the former East bloc. The ban -- which also covers alcohol
advertising -- was approved by an overwhelming majority on 15
November after deputies argued that such advertising is doing more
harm than good for the nation.

Prague, 21 November 2001 (RFE/RL) -- Ukraine doesn't want to run the
Marlboro Man out of town -- at least, not yet -- but they do want to
handcuff him a bit.

A vast majority of Ukraine's parliament deputies, 310 out of 450,
voted in favor of placing tough new restrictions on alcohol and
tobacco advertising on 15 November. If President Leonid Kuchma signs
the bill into law -- as he is widely expected to do -- all such
advertising will be banned from television, radio, print media, and
billboards.

During parliamentary debate preceding the vote, deputies argued that
such ads lead to greater consumption of tobacco and alcohol
products, sending a poor signal to Ukraine's younger generations and
posing a serious health threat to the country's 49 million people.

One of Ukraine's leading anti-tobacco crusaders, Kostyantyn
Krasovsky, said passage of the legislature was a good first step in
the fight against smoking.

That message was echoed by Franklin Apfel, a spokesman for the
European regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO):
"We're thrilled that the Ukraine has taken a strong step toward
beginning to curb the expanding epidemic of tobacco in the country,
and the proposed ban is certainly a step in that direction and we
look forward to the president signing that."

Not everyone was pleased by the new legislation, however -- first
and foremost the tobacco industry and advertising agencies. Andriy
Federov, director for business development at Video International --
one of Ukraine's largest advertising companies -- said he doubted
the legislation will cut smoking or drinking habits. Moreover, he
said producers of billboards and television broadcasting will be
adversely impacted by the bans.

Tobacco advertisements are king in Ukraine. According to the
Ukrainian Media Monitor agency, which tracks advertising in 30
Ukrainian cities, cigarettes were the most heavily advertised
products on billboards in Ukraine in the first eight months of 2001.
The agency says tobacco ads account for 33 percent of all outdoor
advertisements in the country.

But anti-tobacco lobbyist Krasovsky -- who directs Kyiv's Alcohol
and Drug Information Center -- said this latest attempt by the
Ukrainian legislature to shackle the tobacco industry may not work.
He says it is a "partial ban" because it does nothing to stop
tobacco companies from sponsoring and posting advertisements at
entertainment and sporting events.

"First of all, a World Bank report called 'Fighting the Epidemic,
Government and Political Control over Tobacco,' shows that partial
bans on advertising don't work, like on radio and television, so it
isn't worth passing such legislation. Only a total ban -- like in
France, Norway, Finland, and New Zealand and other countries --
helps decrease smoking among the population. I want to remind you in
Ukraine, more than 100,000 people die a year from smoking-related
diseases. And if banning advertising will decrease smoking by 1
percent, that will save the lives of a thousand people."

Krasovsky worries -- and industry experts expect -- that the tobacco
industry in Ukraine is likely to find loopholes around the latest
ban -- including things like direct marketing, which involves
offering free samples of the product.

According to data provided by the WHO, 17 countries in Eurasia have
some type of restrictions placed on tobacco advertising, including
Azerbaijan, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and
Turkmenistan.

But the former communist states face a difficult challenge. The
tobacco industry has flowed into the region with fistfuls of cash,
buying up formerly state-owned cigarette factories and building new
ones. As part of its initiative, the tobacco industry has also
invested millions of dollars in advertising. A British newspaper,
"The Times," reported that between 1992 and 1997, the industry spent
more than $3 billion in the former Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe.

Western tobacco giant Philip Morris says it now holds a dominant
share of the tobacco market in several parts of Eastern Europe. The
company says it controls 33 percent of the market in Poland, 53
percent in Slovakia, and 79 percent in the Czech Republic.

Apfel says that at the same time Western tobacco companies have
invaded Eastern markets, little has been done to increase awareness
of the health risks involved with smoking. The combination, he says,
has caused the former Iron Curtain to evolve into what he calls the
'Tobacco Curtain.'

"We see a huge problem in the Eastern bloc countries, the former
Soviet countries. It's interesting because where we see a problem,
the tobacco industry sees a new market and an opportunity. We think
to a large degree that the Iron Curtain has been replaced by a
Tobacco Curtain. Much of the activities toward tobacco control and
awareness and knowledge of the dangers and risks that are emerging
in the West are not well known in the Eastern countries, and the
tobacco industry has taken advantage of that."

Clive Bates, of London's Action on Smoking and Health, explains that
tobacco companies were among the pioneers to test the commercial
waters of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union after the
collapse of communism: "As soon as the walls came down, they were
the first in. I mean, there was no hesitation. They were in selling
tobacco as a Western liberated lifestyle, and they've been immensely
successful. You know, it's been seen as part of modernization and
reconstruction -- incredibly, perversely. The only example where
that hasn't happened, I must say, is Poland, where the Poles
recognize this problem and put in a very good anti-tobacco program
which managed to associate smoking with the old regime, and the old
ways."

Ukraine's Krasovsky singles out Lithuania as another case where wise
restrictions on tobacco advertising have taken root. He says the
Lithuanians have banned what is called "indirect advertising." Bates
says this usually take the form of a tobacco company "sponsoring" a
sporting event or a rock concert where young people -- who represent
a ripe market for cigarette companies -- are likely to gather. In
return for sponsorship, the company is generally allowed to post its
logo on signs and products at the event.

As criticism of tobacco advertising has grown, tobacco companies
have found other ways of promoting their brands as well. Apfel says
cigarette companies comprise some of the biggest philanthropical
spenders in Eastern Europe. While that may not raise brand
awareness, it buys the company respect as a "responsible corporate
citizen."

The WHO says tobacco restrictions can work if they are comprehensive
and include education as a key plank. Among the countries that have
been most successful with such a strategy are Norway, Finland,
France, and New Zealand.

But can a country as poor as Ukraine turn its back on the tobacco
lobby, one of the most powerful in the country?  All six of
Ukraine's largest tobacco plants are now in the hands of foreign
companies -- a statistic that means big revenues for the state.
According to data from the State Tax Administration, three tobacco
firms were on the list of Ukraine's 10 biggest taxpayers last year,
with Philip Morris Ukraine topping the list.

But Krasovsky says ultimately it is Ukrainian smokers who are
footing the bill -- not just with money, but with their health: "As
far as taxes go -- that tobacco companies pay very high taxes, only
a person who doesn't know anything about taxes can say something
like that. It is not the [tobacco] company or the manufacturer that
pays the taxes, but the consumer -- first of all to the state, then
to the company, and then he has to pay all the medical costs caused
by tobacco."

This is not Ukraine's first attempt at cutting back on tobacco
advertising. Television and radio ads for tobacco have been banned
since 1996. But Krasovsky says the ban has not been strictly
enforced.

The issue of tobacco advertising is to get a global airing starting
tomorrow, when representatives of 191 countries meet in Geneva to
negotiate global standards for tobacco control under the Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control. The WHO's director-general, Doctor
Gro Harlem Brundland, calls tobacco addiction a "communicated
disease, communicated through advertising, promotion, and
sponsorship."

(Irena Chalupa of the Ukrainian Service contributed to this
report.)