Puffers will find their smokes regardless of display ban

Not surprisingly, cigarette manufacturers were the first to react against the Public Health Ministry’s plan to prohibit the display of cigarettes at points of sale. Their claim that they were being treated unfairly is understandable. Banning the display of a product at retail outlets ends that product’s visibility among the public, so much so that the line dividing it from illegal products becomes extremely thin.

If this plan goes ahead, anti-smoking advocates will no doubt dance a jig of joy. It may also help the effort to curb smoking, But unlike the graphic pictures placed on cigarette packets it is doubtful whether it will meet the objective of preventing youngsters from taking to tobacco.

The question is whether the measure is logical. If the products disappear from store shelves, will this translate into fewer smokers? Will it serve to help discourage youngsters from experimenting with a puff or two? I doubt it. Speaking from my own experience, smokers share one trait in common: they keep their smoking habit a secret when they are using money they have not earned to pay for cigarettes. So, buying cigarettes is a subversive act for them. Sad to say, but the more subversive a youngster regards a particular act, the more they are tempted to give it a go.

A few decades ago, when foreign brands weren’t available legally, smokers of my generation would buy them from vendors who displayed only empty boxes. From my own experience as a smoker and as a non-smoker, I can say that seeing cigarettes on display has not been a determining factor in my decision to buy them. You don’t feel like grabbing a pack when you see a well-known brand on the rack. The time you really feel like a cigarette is simply when you feel like smoking - it’s as simple and as complicated as that.

Preventing youngsters from becoming cigarette smokers is yet another argument made by advocates who want to see the product made invisible in public. I tend to agree with a message posted on the community website pantip.com, which said that teenagers are not attracted simply by seeing products on display. Think about drugs like amphetamine and ecstasy. Have you ever seen them on display? They are not visible in shops but what reminds us of them is the number of abusers.

However, marketing gurus believe that the clear visibility of cigarettes lures in new customers, as it would with a new brand of instant noodles or green tea.

But the issue of young people and cigarettes is more complicated than that.

We were once teenagers and we should know that we preferred to explore areas that were off limits.

This is perhaps a dilemma for the ministry and health activists. You could make cigarettes more accessible - but then promote them as being the domain of old-fashioned people, like a dying fashion brand. Or you can send them underground and tempt teenagers into believing that it’s cool and chic to smoke.

So far, measures like banning smoking in all public places and printing graphic pictures on the cigarette packages have had some positive feedback. Although youngsters love to be cool, they certainly don’t want to be in a minority.

The warning on the packet does convey the message that beautiful people have to be healthy. Though of course you could also say, as Prabda Yoon has, that “Smoking can cause bad photographs.”

Adult puffers are fully aware of their minority status and the lack of having the products on display wouldn’t worry them. They know where they can get their nicotine sticks and they are also well informed about where they can puff without getting fined.

If the display of a product is perceived as a kind of advertisement and deserves to be banned, health activists should perhaps also campaign against the visibility of smokers. They remind everyone of smoking.

And those smoking rooms at the airports, or the small smoking and non-smoking signs here and there - don’t they also remind us of cigarettes and their consumers?

So let’s hope for the best - that the number of smokers in Thailand falls. Let’s also hope that all we’ve done so far will bring about the best results.

Published on August 06, 2005