The government of the UAE has introduced one of the most stringent ant-tobacco bans in the world, banning with immediate effect all advertising and promotion of tobacco products. This goes even beyond the United States government regulations, which outlaw tobacco ads in the electronic media, but permits advertising in magazines and on public billboards.
The ban is being enforced by the UAE’s ministry of information and culture. According to Gulf News, Saqr Ghabash, the ministry’s undersecretary has been in contact with newspaper editors, television and radio station directors and distributors of foreign newspapers, explaining to them the implications of the ban on advertisements, promotions or competitions which endorse smoking or tobacco products
The immediacy and the severity of this latest ruling reportedly surprised local tobacco companies, though they should not have been. The decision was taken by the General Secretariat of Municipalities a year ago, and followed a similar decision by the Council of Ministers in 1980.
Representatives of the tobacco companies complained that they had not been properly informed about what was to transpire. Quoted by Gulf News, Richard Reavey, the director of Middle East corporate affairs for Philip Morris Services, pointed out that the tobacco industry has been operating under a voluntary code for a number of years in the UAE, which restricts marketing activities aimed at young smokers.
In 1998, KPMG, the international accounting and management-consulting group, conducted a survey on behalf of the International Advertising Association, to investigate the potential cost of banning tobacco advertising in a number of markets. It ruled that the loss to the UAE economy would be $275 million over a five-year period. — (Albawaba-MEBG)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
