[Intl-tobacco] TAKE ACTION! Stop Big Tobacco from Undermining "Smoke-Free" World Cup

[Robert Weissman]

Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 20:58:00 -0400
From: Anna White <awhite@essential.org>


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TAKE ACTION! Stop Big Tobacco from Undermining "Smoke-Free" World Cup
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Dear Friends,

The theme of this year's World No Tobacco Day (May 31st) is
"Tobacco-Free Sports." The day also marks the kick off of the World Cup
2002, which will take place in Korea and Japan this year. Appropriately,
the World Cup will be smoke-free. But that hasn't stopped the tobacco
industry from profiting off of associating their cigarette brands with
the mega soccer event.

In at least three countries tobacco companies are sponsoring television
coverage of the World Cup! And in one country, BAT just launched a
"youth program" by donating 20 soccer balls to an organization that
works with street children. Please see below for information from
Malaysia, Pakistan, Niger, and Uganda.

TAKE ACTION! Find out whether or not the tobacco industry is sponsoring
television coverage of the World Cup (or in any way linking soccer and
tobacco leading up to the event) in your and your partner's countries.
Inquire with advertising managers for national media. Look and listen
for television, radio, and print tobacco advertisements related to the
World Cup.

IF SO, here are some follow-up actions that we strongly encourage you
and your global partner to take. Inoussa Saouna (SOS-Tabagisme, NIGER)
and Laurent Huber (ASH, USA) are already working together to address the
situation in Niger!:

     1. Contact the television station and demand that it
     immediately halt all tobacco-industry sponsored advertising
     related to the World Cup 2002.

     2. Send a letter to the tobacco company to denounce its
     irresponsible disregard for public health. Demand that it
     immediately halt all tobacco advertising related to the World
     Cup 2002.

     3. Alert your regional World Health Organization office to the
     matter, and urge them to get WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative
     involved. WHO signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the
     Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) for a
     tobacco-free World Cup, and this is being violated. See:
     http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/aofm/0205/FIFA-WHOTobaccoFreeAgreement.pdf

     For regional WHO contact info see:
     http://www5.who.int/tobacco/page.cfm?sid=35.

     4. Issue a press release to local, national and international
     press. See example from Malaysia:
     http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/aofm/0205/prmalaysia.html

     5. Send a protest letter to FIFA in Switzerland. Encourage
     groups in your networks to do so as well. Refer to WHO-FIFA
     MOU. Include copy of press release. See example from Malaysia:
     http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/aofm/0205/FIFA.html

     6. Write to your Ministry of Health to protest the clash
     between World No Tobacco Day and the tobacco industry's
     sponsorship of the World Cup telecast. Ask that the government
     intervene.

     7. Organize an international email/fax campaign directed at
     one of the above entities (television station, FIFA etc).
     Essential Action can forward your appeal to all GPTC
     participants.

     8. If your example relates to BAT, write a 300 word
     letter-to-the-editor about BAT's complete lack of "social
     responsibility" for an upcoming ASH-UK publication. Submit to:
     Ned Bagg <ned.bagg@dial.pipex.com> and Clive Bates
     <clive.bates@dial.pipex.com>

     9. If you do not receive a favorable response, organize a
     demonstration leading up to or on World No Tobacco Day in
     front of the tobacco company's headquarters. Mobilize lots of
     youth to participate. Think of appropriate chants. Bring signs
     and banners.

     SPECIAL THANKS to Mary Assunta (Consumers Association of
     Penang) for suggesting most of these ideas. Mary is currently
     fighting BAT's sponsorship of World Cup television coverage in
     Malaysia. For more info: <marya@health.usyd.edu.au>

This is an excellent issue to incorporate into your WNTD 2002
activities! If the tobacco industry is not sponsoring World Cup 2002
television coverage in your or your partner's country, please support
the efforts of our colleagues in other countries. For example, send a
letter to FIFA to denounce BAT's sponsorship of World Cup 2002
television coverage in Malaysia.

Let us know what you find out & what actions you and your partner will
take!
Anna

Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control
Essential Action
P.O. Box 19405
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: +1 202-387-8030
Fax: +1 202-234-5176
Email: tobacco@essential.org
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco

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BACKGROUND RE: TOBACCO INDUSTRY CAPITALIZING ON WORLD CUP 2002
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MALAYSIA: NO TOBACCO-FREE SOCCER FOR MALAYSIAN FANS
Dunhill (BAT) is sponsoring the telecast of the World Cup to Malaysia!
Can you imagine the
irony of this for World No Tobacco Day celebrations?  FIFA claims to
have a tobacco-free policy, but it is not serious in implementing this
when it comes to broadcast rights for its events. I have already raised
this matter with them at the previous World Cup in 1998 when again
Dunhill sponsored the telecasts in Malaysia. FIFA cannot be careless
about this. The irony cannot be more stark than it is for us this year.
While the whole world celebrates World No Tobacco Day with the theme
"Tobacco-free Sports" with FIFA endorsing this initiative through the
World Cup, Malaysians will be watching the games courtesy of Dunhill.
FIFA has to take responsibility for this.
-- Mary Assunta, Consumers Association of Penang [from FCA listserv]
See related advertisement [from ASH-UK website]
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/photos/my/worldcupdunhill.jpg
See article "World Cup Tobacco Ads Draw Protest"
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/intl-tobacco/2002q2/000730.html
Press Release issues by Consumers Association of Penang
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/aofm/0205/prmalaysia.html
Letter from Consumers Association of Penang to FIFA
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/aofm/0205/FIFA.html

PAKISTAN: USE OF WORLD CUP FOR TOBACCO MARKETING
While all over the world people are working to dissociate sports from
tobacco, in Pakistan tobacco companies are using the forthcoming World
Cup to market tobacco to the youth of Pakistan. Four weeks before the
World Cup, they started airing television programs with highlights of
previous World Cups along with extensive cigarette advertising. They
have also announced various sweepstakes in relation to football matches,
in which over one kilogram of gold is being offered as a prize. The
tobacco companues know very well that youth are very much interested and
excited about this coming World Cup, and they are making best use of
this event to make our youth addicted to tobacco. On the other hand they
advertise and say that "we do not target children" and "smoking is for
adults only." Please see attached advertisement which the tobacco
company ran on the front page of a daily news paper:
"ENJOY THE WORLDCUP WITH DIPLOMAT CIGARETTE" (Diplomat is a brand of
Lackson Tobacco company, a subsidiary of Philip Morris)
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/photos/pk/diplomat.jpg
-- Javaid A. Khan, Aga Khan University, Department of Medicine
<javaid.khan@aku.edu>

NIGER: BAT TO BROADCAST WORLD CUP 2002 LIVE ON GIANT SCREENS
British American Tobacco appears intent on undermining FIFA's
tobacco-free policy and on doing everything it can to rob Niger from
enjoying a tobacco-free World Cup. In 1996, BAT signed a 10 year
contract with the Soccer Federation of Niger (Fédération Nigérienne de
Football FENIFOOT). This contract ensures the promotion of BAT Rothman
cigarettes in soccer fields throughout Niger.
    In 1998 BAT built 7 "New Line" pavilions and placed them
strategically in Niamey's intersections, even in front of schools. These
pavilions are a gathering place where youth congregate, play and have
access to cheap cigarettes. It is in those pavillions that BAT will
broadcast live matches of the World Cup 2002 on giant screens.
    Unfortunately BAT's marketing behaviors will ensure that children
will be bombarded with pro-tobacco messages during World Cup 2002
events. The WHO's message of "Tobacco free sports" will be lost in Niger
because BAT is creating a positive association between tobacco and
Niger's number one sport, soccer. What kind of "social responsibility"
is this?
-- Inoussa Saouna, SOS-Tabagisme <inoussa_saouna@yahoo.fr> and Laurent
Huber, Action on Smoking and Health (USA) <world@ash.org>

UGANDA: BAT LAUNCHES YOUTH PREVENTION CAMPAIGN WITH SOCCER
Yesterday, BAT launched its youth campaign with a donation of over Ug.
Shs. 6,000,000 (approximagely $ 3,360) and 20 footballs to Tigers Club,
a local ngo dealing with resettlement of street children. The footballs
are inscribed with "youth smoking prevention" and were donated to
"encourage youth to take on sports instead of smoking." The donations
were mobilised by former BAT employee Cammeille Petland and her husband.

The story is in Uganda's national daily New Vision:
http://www.newvision.co.ug/detail.php?subCatId=7&subCatName=National&story=41888

-- Philip Karugaba, The Environmental Action Network Ltd. [from
Globalink] <karugaba@globalink.org>

And good news from...

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: BAT WILL NOT SPONSOR WORLD CUP BROADCASTS
I rang EM-TV, the major national TV station, and spoke to Micharel
Harvey, the Sales Manager, and he assured me in categoric terms that the
World Cup broadcasts in Papua New Guinea will not be sponsored by BAT
and tobacco.  He further assured me that EM-TVs policy is now against
tobacco in sports events, though there are some sports themselves still
sponsored by BAT in
the country. This is positive news in a country where for the last 15
years (since the Tobacco Control Act of 1987) when sports and cultural
sponsorships by BAT were their major advertising medium.
-- Colin Richardson, ASH-PNG [from FCA listserv]
<crichardson@adventist.org.au>

And while on the topic...

KOREA: NEW CIGARETTE BRAND TAPS INTO WORLD CUP 2002 POPULARITY
Last month, Choi Jin Sook of the Korean Association on Smoking and
Health reported that her country's tobacco monopoly  (which has been
forced to compete more effectively against aggressive transnational
corporations) has issued a new line of soccer-themed cigarettes. To view
go to:
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/photos/kr/time2002.jpg

For more information about Big Tobacco & sports around the world see
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/qofm/0203a.html