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The Global Expansion Of Big Tobacco

Big Tobacco companies in the United States budget billions of dollars to spend each year on aggressive marketing campaigns overseas. These campaigns are meant to encourage smoking in international countries by portraying a direct link between smoking and positive American values such as freedom and liberation. Strong tactics are used especially to promote smoking among women and teenagers. Men currently comprise the largest number of smokers, so advertisements are often not targeted to them. These are the same tactics employed by tobacco companies to increase smoking in the United States. Such activities have been banned or restricted in the United States, so the companies have sought new markets, hence the assertive entrance into the international market where there is little to no regulation of the industry. The human costs involved with smoking continue to rise, especially in countries in which the literacy rate is low and people are uninformed or misinformed about the ills of smoking tobacco products. Global tobacco companies, such as, Philip Morris, B.A.T. (British American Tobacco), RJR Nabisco continue to force themselves into the lives of the international public. These companies continue to devise new and creative ways to avoid any restrictions adopted by international countries. Unfortunately, the United States government has not made this a difficult task, often assisting the tobacco companies in their efforts. The only way that the presence of tobacco companies in international countries will be diminished is if new foreign policy is developed to ban and restrict advertising in those countries, as well.
In 1998 the industry’s budget for global advertising was $4.9 billion dollars. That is triple what the budget was in 1978, according to figures obtained from the Federal Trade Commission (Gold, 1). In recent years, smoking has declined in the United States but increased overseas. According to Hammond, cigarette sales fell by 4.5...