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Excerpts from: Tobacco Groups Target Women

Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg), [10/20/00]
October 20, 2000

By Khadija Magardie, Johannesburg

Health activists are concerned about a vigorous advertising campaign to recruit more women smokers, particularly in
developing countries.

Latest statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate there are about a billion smokers worldwide - less than
12% of which are women.

But, women's health activists say, this figure is expected to mushroom rapidly in the next 10 years, due to what they call a deliberate, vigorous campaign by tobacco advertisers to "recruit" women smokers.

What is more worrying, they say, is that the adverts appear more inclined towards women in previously untapped markets - in
developing countries.

At public hearings held by the WHO last week, the growing number of women who smoke and are addicted to nicotine was
one of the issues highlighted. The South African-based Health-e News Service reported that delegates appealed to the WHO
to "support measures to protect women from the persuasive images used in cigarette advertising".

Using data collected in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Sweden and China, the WHP found that tobacco advertisers
constantly promote the idea that smoking equals "emancipation" or "liberation" for women.

One well-known billboard advertisement for a popular cigarette brand, which can be found on nearly every Johannesburg
highway, features a young blond woman sitting on a park bench, with a lit cigarette in her hand. "Do I look like I'd cook you
breakfast?" reads the caption. Another, for the same brand, has a young, big-busted woman stepping out of a shower, her
body glistening and a faint smile on her lips.

The caption: "Do I look shy?" According to freelance writer Ginger Otis, who has published work on the subject of women and
tobacco advertising on the Internet newsgroup, Women's Wire, it would be easy to dismiss the adverts as "typical", were it not
for the fact that the idea of equating women's liberation and freedom with lighting a cigarette is still a new, potentially damaging
image being flighted in countries unaccustomed to it.

The adverts, she says, appear to be "frighteningly effective at convincing young women that it is cool to smoke". The main
problem of marketing cigarettes to developing countries is one of resources.

According to the United States-based advocacy group, Tobacco Free, smoking poses various health risks to women that often
prove more dangerous than to men. Women who smoke and use oral contraceptives, for instance, have an increased risk of
strokes and cancer, as well as high risks of osteoporosis and cervical cancer.

In addition, tobacco companies tend to market "light" brands to women - which have been proven to be associated with rare
and potentially fatal tumors in lung tissue.

The image of "smoking equals freedom", says Christofides, is aided by the fact that the advertising depicts sophisticated or
trendy women smoking with men - a sign of "gender equality".