[Intl-tobacco] Examples of BAT Advertising in Kenya

[robert weissman]

http://www.ash.org.uk/html/press/060427.html

=93Hopes and Dreams=94 and =93Up and Away=94:
Examples of BAT Advertising in Kenya (further examples in ASH paper)

Britain=92s largest tobacco firm, British American Tobacco, holds its AGM
today, as Action on Smoking and Health publishes a new paper accusing
the company of systematic exploitation and abuse in the developing world.


Using Kenya as a case study (BAT is by far the largest tobacco firm in
the country), the paper (view at
www.ash.org.uk/html/international/html/BATKenya060425.html)

shows:

=B7                 BAT uses advertising and promotional methods in Kenya
that are banned in the UK, attempting to associate smoking with sport
and fashion, and promoting sales of single cigarettes to attract young
people and the poor (photographs taken in Kenya in November 2005)

=B7                 BAT has lobbied and offered perks and benefits to
Kenyan politicians to frustrate attempts to pass tobacco control
legislation;

=B7                 BAT has played a major role in supporting a shockingly
high smoking prevalence rate in the country, including among young
children, ensuring a major public health disaster in a country already
struggling with AIDS; and

=B7                 BAT has been encouraging farmers to grow tobacco at
the expense of food and vital crops, and encouraging the very poor to
spend money on feeding their addiction rather than their families, at a
time when four million Kenyans require food aid because of drought,
under-production of basic crops and poor distribution. Meanwhile BAT has
sought favourable publicity by making a =A3120,000 donation to the
country=92s famine relief fund.

Meanwhile, BAT Kenya is making record profits. Pre-tax profits rose 14%
to 2 billion Ksh in 2005 (around =A316 million), against Ksh1.75 billion
in 2004. Local demand grew by 2%, and exports increased from 1.2 billion
sticks in 2004, to 3.2 billion in 2005.

BAT Kenya has lobbied fiercely against any attempts to pass tobacco
control legislation in the country. A 2004 Bill was blocked after
opposition from BAT and the tobacco lobby. Tactics included  BAT and
other tobacco firms spending at least 7 million Kenyan shillings (Ksh)
[about =A356,000] to host MPs at the exclusive Safari Beach Hotel in
Diania for a =93discussion=94 of the anti-tobacco Bill. MPs present then
backed the amendments the companies proposed at the weekend meeting. [1]
Advertising in Kenya includes attempts to promote sale of single
cigarettes, which breaches even BAT=92s own discredited marketing code,
whichi states that =94cigarettes shall not be sold or distributed to
consumers in packages containing fewer than ten sticks=94. Single stick
sales are directly intended to attract young people and others on low
incomes. Single stick sales were made illegal in the UK in 1991 under
the Children and Young Persons (Protection from Tobacco) Act.

Last year Kenya=92s health minister said that 1.1 million underage Kenyans
were addicted to tobacco. The Health Ministry estimates that Kenyans
smoke about ten billion cigarettes a year, equivalent to more than 500
each year for every Kenyan adult. The Ministry also estimates that while
tobacco taxations raises around 5 billion shillings each year, it costs
the country five times as much in disease, disability and death. [2]
BAT=92s PR approach to this issue includes offering around =A36,000 for a
health facility in Eastern Kenya.

Tobacco addiction is worsening the country=92s serious problem with
malnutrition and even famine. Analysis by the East African newspaper
suggested that a Nairobi casual worker earning Ksh150  a day, for
example, would only need to smoke eight cigarettes - each costing Ksh3 -
daily to go through a fifth of his pay. The same money can buy half a
litre of milk from a supermarket, or five eggs - enough protein to
pre-empt serious malnutrition in a family of four. BAT=92s PR approach to
this issue includes offering =A3120,000 to the country=92s famine relief
fund, at a public ceremony with Kenyan president Kibaki.

ASH Public Affairs Manager Ian Willmore said:

=93Our paper shows just how BAT plans to respond to the decline in the
number of smokers in the developed world, and to the growing regulation
of their devastating product and the smooth and cynical PR campaigns
that go with it. BAT plans to =91grow=92 their market in developing
countries. They arrive with glossy adverts and handouts to eager
politicians. They leave behind a trail of wreckage: public health
disaster, damage to the environment and the worsening of already chronic
malnutrition.

BAT=92s AGM will be another opportunity for self-satisfied men in suits to
congratulate each other on how much money they are making. They must
hope that their chatter about profit and dividends and moaning about
Government regulation will be loud enough to drown out the voices of
their millions of victims across the world=94.

- ENDS -

Notes and Links



[1] East African Standard 2004-11-19
www.tobacco.org/articles/country/kenya/?starting_at=3D60

[2] news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/3758707.stm

[3] http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=3D411933



Ian Willmore 020 7739 5902 (w) 07887 641344 (m)

Deborah Arnott  020 7739 5902 (w) 079 7693 5987 (m)