Big Tobacco and the Youth of Africa

"I like to ride with the people. Know your clients. My people cram themselves into a tiny seat, pop a Xanex, and dream of the moment when they can stuff their face with fresh tobacco. If I can convince just one of these kids to pick up smoking, I've paid for my flight. Round trip!"

- Nick Naylor, "Thank You For Smoking"

How do you defend the seemingly indefensible? Nicotine addictions and all that implies have been rising rapidly in Africa, with a reported 100,000 deaths (WHO) annually through tobacco-related illnesses. The World Health Organization is quoting local doctors who are foreseeing a doubling of that figure in the next 20 years if laws and regulations are not enforced by governments across the continent. In a recent documentary made for BBC2's This World, businessman Duncan Bannatyne points a spotlight on underage smoking in Malawi, Nigeria and Mauritius. 

Dispensing with any boardroom rhetoric and press statements, Bannatyne goes on to present evidence of questionable marketing strategies employed by Africa's largest nicotine provider, British American Tobacco (BAT). Although smoking advertisements have been banned in Mauritius for over 10 years, BAT has creatively been able to keep a presence on the streets: shops have been painted in the same colour as Matinee (one of the leading brands), single stick dispensers have been provided to shops by BAT, making cigarettes affordable for children, and large music festivals are being sponsored by Benson & Hedges along with a chance to win luxury prizes if you attend. 

The documentary no doubt caused some shock amongst viewers, who witnessed children as young as 11 years old buy single sticks from a shop. Additionally, the prize for most ironic charity project went to BAT for offering to build a new cancer ward at a hospital in Nigeria if they would be allowed to paint the building in the company colours. The mind staggers to comprehend...

Not surprisingly BAT issued a detailed press statement in response to the documentary and vigorously defends its operations in Africa. Some of its statements were the following:

"...we do not believe this programme showed any clear evidence of our Marketing Standards being breached or of any laws being broken by our companies."

"Like Duncan Bannatyne, we really do not want children to smoke, but sadly, we don’t think this programme ever really got to grips with effective ways to prevent this from happening."

"The programme showed Pall Mall branded items such as t-shirts and caps for attendees, which by the way all carried health warnings. But it did not report that this is already something our companies no longer do."

The type of denial made in the last statement can be found throughout the press release. Apparently all the marketing tricks uncovered in the documentary have long since been halted and BAT's operations in Africa now confirms to their strict and "ethical" marketing policy. This change in policy must have been made not too long ago however, since in the documentary all these tactics were still in use. Perhaps Bannatyne did not convince BAT's board of their misbehaviour, but he did succeed by making the sale of cigarettes a little bit more difficult.

It is likely cigarettes will be with us always, or for at least for a very long time, and you might as well jump on a horse and chase windmills for all the good talk about shutting down tobacco companies will do. A more effective path to take is that of international regulations on the sale and marketing of cigarettes and other tobacco products. What is making it more difficult in Africa, and especially in the countries highlighted, is a lack of resources to implement such regulations or in some cases easily avoided officials.

BAT is witnessing yet another large market slowly turn from an "open" into a "regulated" one. Another relevant step on the long road to decrease smoke-related deaths and make people realize that smoking, as Duncan Bannatyne puts it, is totally unnecessary.