Smoking Baby - How does tobacco industry commit with CSR?

Smoking baby

Although the damage caused by smoking has been demonstrated and propagated all the time, tobacco epidemic continues to kill millions of lives per year around the world. In the tobacco industry, corporate social responsibility changes according to geography and politics. We have no longer seen most of advertising, promotion and sponsorship publicity in North America, West Europe, etc. and cigarette advertising towards youth is banned. However, somewhere in the rest of the world, cigarettes have been significantly advertised and promoted, not being restricted even to children. Indonesia is an example, as smoking is a culture in this country. It is completely legal for kids to buy and smoke cigarettes in Indonesia. A viral video of an Indonesian two-year old baby smoking 40 cigarettes a day (ODN, 2010), as well as many other shocking videos of smoking children, have come into painful questions about social responsibility of tobacco companies, particularly their advertisement activities towards kids.

The video went viral after a short time published. Some offshore mass media stepped in to investigate and it was said that there is an “epidemic of chain-smoking” Indonesia youth. Philip Morris (PMI), one of the most US powerful and profitable corporation, had been criticized to be part of the epidemic in this country, where Marlboro has dominated the market (ABC News, 2012). Although cigarette advertising is banned in the US and many other countries, it is not only allowed in Indonesia but is also among the most aggressive and innovative in the world. It is understandable since revenue from tobacco is one of the largest sources of government revenue, and tobacco industry is the second largest employer after the government  (Nichter, 2009).

Remarkably, tobacco companies seem to try profiting from children as there have been lack of regulation on advertising. Let’s take Marlboro as a representative. Even the Marlboro man, literally dead in the West, is still alive and miraculously in Indonesia. PMI had promoted to young people by sexy TV ads, placed Marlboro billboard right near schools, sponsored kiosks closed by schools, etc. Everyone including kids can buy an individual cigarette for a dime (ABC News, 2012). A survey conducted in 2016 found that 85% of schools have tobacco advertisements surrounded (Barclay, 2017). Tobacco company reps visit school areas with free cigarettes and new promotional material every few months. Philip Morris International, as well as other tobacco, said it does not market cigarettes to children but they have used tactics to attract young people by putting its ads close to sweets, snacks, soda drink or stationery and often at the eye level of children, colourful branding, near cashiers, showing on digital screens, on-sale flavoured cigarettes, etc. Additional, tobacco industry has sponsored many big events/celebrations and provided numerous scholarships for students (Guardian, 2018).

Beside the smoking culture of the country, tobacco companies play a vital role in the spread of smoking epidemic in youngsters. The question (for Marlboro’s CEO) was “Are you able to sleep at night? Do you do the right thing?”. Huge profit is the answer. Tobacco industry is super profitable, but the worst thing is to make more profit from children by taking advantage of unrestricted regulatory environment. They make effort to replace current quitted and dead smokers with the next generation. Nothing in terms of corporate social responsibility that tobacco companies can do except stop doing the business since the more they do, the more lives they are killing every single day. However, it won’t certainly happen. Some kind of so-called CSR that the tobacco industry has done, such as sponsor for national celebrations, offer scholarships for students, etc., are actually forms of marketing to approach more people, without any positive changes to the society.

Due to health concern, tobacco industry has been strongly criticized by the community. Therefore, tobacco companies introduced their CSR programs to win back social respectability, such as: hunger and disaster relief, campaign against domestic violence, waste management, etc. Tobacco companies used social and environmental issues as a shield for the controversial business. CSR programs have also been used to deal with stakeholders. However, according to WHO, the CSR of the tobacco industry is an adherent contradiction as industry’s core functions are in conflict with the goals of public health policies (Tobacco Tactics, n.d.).

In conclusion, all nations around the world should have laws against smoking, especially stringent regulations against advertising activity towards kids. It is impossible to stop the situation but at least, it could reduce the widespread of smoking among youngsters. E-cigarettes and cigarette alternatives (i.e. RBH’s IQOS), which are less toxic, have been considered by some large tobacco companies (CBC Radio, 2017). Of course, these products are not risk-free and that not an optimal solution but they can somehow help out.