No Smoking Day is observed every year on the second Wednesday of March, to encourage people over the world to quit smoking. No Smoking Day, 2021 is being celebrated on March 10. The main purpose of this day is to spread awareness about the harmful health effects of tobacco consumption through the cigarette and other modes. An important message is to help smokers to get rid of the bad habit of smoking.
No Smoking Day: History
No Smoking Day awareness movement was first started in 1984 in the United Kingdom on the day of Ash Wednesday and since then it has been an annual celebration event and tries to save people from the harmful effects of smoking. The motto behind this day celebration is to help people to quit smoking forever. According to the researchers, this effort has proven very effective and was observed that at least one among the ten people has been observed to give up smoking on this day.
Smokers Statistics
The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing more than 8 million people a year around the world. More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. All forms of tobacco are harmful, and there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco. Cigarette smoking is the most common form of tobacco use worldwide.
Cigarettes are smoked by over 1 billion people, which is nearly 20% of the world’s population in 2014. About 800 million of these smokers are men. While smoking rates have leveled off or declined in developed nations, especially among men, in developing nations tobacco consumption continues to rise.
More than 80% of all smokers now live in countries with low or middle incomes, and 60% in just 10 countries, a list headed by China. China is the world’s most populated country, and is also the leading country in the cigarette industry. In 2014, China produced and consumed more than 30% of the cigarettes in the world. There is a strong relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and smoking behaviours. According to research, developing countries have the highest rate of tobacco use.
Smoking and its effects in India
India houses 12 per cent of the world’s smokers. Approximately 130 million people ages 15 and older currently smoke. According to Foundation for a Smoke-free World, up to 60 per cent of total lung cancers among males in India are tobacco-related.
Subtle Marketing Techniques used by Cigarette Companies
In 2003, India passed the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), which prohibits tobacco advertisements through most forms of mass media. Smoking is banned in all public places, with the exception of airports and certain capacity hotels and restaurants with designated smoking areas.
To sell more cigarettes in such an environment, the cigarette companies adopt subtle marketing techniques. These include:
1. Featuring characters that smoke in Entertainment Industry
The films, web series, etc. often feature characters that smoke, subtly promoting the habit. People associate such habits with ‘coolness’ as their beloved characters or actors are doing it. The films or series also display various scenarios where the characters tend to smoke, and that keeps repeating throughout that particular program. The fans of such a program feel the need to smoke whenever they are in similar circumstances.
2. Surrogate Advertising through Alternate Businesses
Wills is a cigarette brand that has involved itself in the Fashion industry, with its retail clothing brand Wills Lifestyle. Wills Lifestyle clothes have a similar logo as the Wills cigarette which leaves a subliminal message in the minds of the people. Similar is the case of Vogue which is considered to be a fashion brand but also sells cigarettes that are considered to be fashionable.
No Smoking Day in the times of COVID-19
The relevance of not smoking is higher now than ever as COVID-19 affects the lungs of the individuals, the most – as everyone knows, one of the major symptoms of the virus is breathlessness. In the face of such a pandemic, smokers are likely to fare much worse than non-smokers for their lungs are likely to be already injured because of the continuous tobacco consumption. This day can serve as a great start for all smokers to quit such a disgusting habit and be careful about the health and welfare of everyone.
