doi:10.1136/tc.2008.027433 2009;18;63 Tob. Control

  L Li and H-H Yong  

ChinaTobacco advertising on the street in Kunming,

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Tobacco advertising on the street inKunming, ChinaChina ratified the WHO Framework Convention on TobaccoControl (FCTC) in October 2005, promising to ban all tobaccoadvertising by January 2011. To prepare for and ensure aneffective and comprehensive ban, it is important to monitor thecurrent channels and levels of tobacco advertising and promo-tion. Our recent trip to Kunming City, capital of the south-western province of Yunnan, gave us a gleam of the prevalenceof tobacco advertising and the strategies adopted by the localtobacco companies in promoting their products.

We attended a workshop on tobacco control policy evaluation inKunming in late April 2008. During our three-day stay there we werequite ‘‘impressed’’ by the ingenuity of the local tobacco companies inadvertising their products. We saw tobacco companies’ names,corporate images and websites on rooftop signage and thewindscreens of taxis. Figure 1 shows a tobacco advertisement forthe ‘‘Honghe Group’’, which is one of the major tobacco companiesin Yunnan (its website (www.honghe.com) is on the back wind-screen of the taxi). We also noticed similar tobacco advertisementson large posters erected on the street and on buildings near Kunmingrailway station. On our way to a well-known tourist attraction (TheEthnicity Village of Yunnan) we saw dozens of huge promotionallanterns for ‘‘Hongyun Tobacco Group’’ lined up like lamp posts andextending for several hundred metres along the median strip of themain road (figs 2 and 3). On these red lanterns the tobaccocompany’s name and brand (‘‘Yunyan’’ brand) are highlighted inhuge Chinese characters. Slogans of the company also appear on the

lanterns (the same as those on their cigarette packages): ‘‘Having thecompanion of Hongyun [cigarettes], good luck and happiness will bewith you’’. When we came to an intersection of the main road, thelantern advertisements were now replaced by large posters (fig 4).The tobacco ad on the posters was presented as a Chinese poem,claiming that it is a famous brand in China; that this brand ofcigarettes has a unique flavour and can help smokers express theirexceptional personalities.

In China the 1991 Tobacco Products Monopoly Law (Article 19)and the 1994 Advertisement Law (Article 18) ban direct tobaccoadvertisements on movies, radios, TV, newspapers or periodicals.However, restrictions on tobacco advertising and promotion inChina are not comprehensive. There are no clear restrictions onoutdoor and internet tobacco advertisements. The tobaccoadvertisements observed in Kunming indicate that tobaccocompanies are continuing to exploit the loopholes in the existinglaws to promote their deadly products, suggesting an urgent needfor enhanced policy development and robust monitoring andenforcement of the laws regarding tobacco advertising restrictionsif China were to fulfil its FCTC obligations.

L Li, H-H Yong

VicHealth Centre for Tobacco Control, The Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

Correspondence to: Dr L Li, PhD, VicHealth Centre for Tobacco Control, The CancerCouncil Victoria, 100 Drummond Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia; lin.li@cancervic.org.au

Funding: This work was supported by grants P50 CA111236 and R01 CA100362 (RoswellPark Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center) from the US National Cancer Instituteand NIH grant 1 R01 CA125116-01A1. Attendance by the authors at the Kunming ITC-Chinaworkshop was funded by the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITCProject). The authors thank Professor Ron Borland (The Cancer Council Victoria, Australia),Professor Geoffrey Fong (University of Waterloo, Canada) and Dr Jiang Yuan (ChineseCenter for Disease Control and Prevention) for their generous support.

Competing interests: None.

Received 27 August 2008Accepted 10 September 2008

Tobacco Control 2009;18:63. doi:10.1136/tc.2008.027433

Figure 1 A tobacco advertisement for the ‘‘Honghe Group’’ on rooftopsignage and the back windscreen of a taxi, with the tobacco company’sname, corporate image and website.

Figure 2 A promotional lantern for the ‘‘Hongyun Tobacco Group’’ withhuge Chinese characters displaying the company’s name, slogans and its‘‘Yunyan’’ brand.

Figure 3 Promotional lanterns for the ‘‘Hongyun Tobacco Group’’ linedup like lamp posts along the median strip of a main road in Kunming.

Figure 4 A poster advertisement for the ‘‘Yunyan’’ cigarette brandpresented as a Chinese poem claiming this famous brand can helpsmokers express their exceptional personalities.

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Tobacco Control February 2009 Vol 18 No 1 63

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