Tobacco Advertising And The Negative Impact Of The Tobacco Industry

702 Words2 Pages

Despite its contribution to state revenue and livelihood in area such as North Sumatera, Central Java and East Java, which well known as tobacco producers, it turns out that tobacco products bring negative impacts to society. There are three issues that should be considered for supporting bans on tobacco advertisement, promotion, and sponsorship, as well as other policy. First, related to health impacts. Research and Health Development Body from Ministry of Health (2015) states that, among top major causes of death in Indonesia, smoking contributes to the highest and second cause of death for cerebrovascular diseases and ischaemic heart disease, as well as chronic lower respiratory in fourth ranked. It was recorded that the number of deaths …show more content…

It is recorded that trillion rupiah has been contributed by tobacco industry. Banning tobacco advertisement, promotion and sponsorship, tighten supervision of retail shops, impose high taxes to tobacco products and expand smoke free zones in future will have different effect to some actors in the field. At least there are three actors which involved, which are tobacco companies, government, and citizens. For tobacco companies, these policy will affected companies’ sales. Tobacco companies argue that tobacco industry play an important role in national’s economy, therefore if all public relation activities related to tobacco products will be banned completely, the tobacco industry might be economically harmed by the bans such as the possibility of bankruptcy if there is a decrease in their profit, which led to massive unemployment. Then, bans on tobacco advertisement, promotion and sponsorship will lessen government burden in economic. Compare to economic loss or healthcare cost as a result of tobacco use, these loss is much higher that revenue which government received from tobacco excise, which only reached IDR 103.53 trillion 2013 (Research and Health Development Body 2014). Lastly, it will affect citizens’ behaviour by discouraging them to buy smoke. In addition, government position seems unwillingly or in dilemma position to enact a strict policy such as imposing all tobacco advertisement, promotion and sponsorship because potential benefits which might loss if harsh policy will be implemented in

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