Death Marketing-1

Cigarettes amid chocolates and candies

Children come for chocolates and candies but leave with the imprint of glossy cigarettes boxes on their mind. Very recently, decorated point-of-sales of cigarette resembling Marlboro product packs have become very common. These point-of-sales often showcase cigarettes and candy items side by side and thus draw the attention of children and adolescents. While the existing tobacco control law has banned cigarette advertisement and promotion at points of sales, GATS 2017 data shows that around 54 percent of people has seen advertisement of cigarettes in any form within 30 days predating the survey. The lax implementation of tobacco control law and the lack of awareness among the retailers have made it quite hard to stop the illegal advertisement of cigarettes. It should be mentioned here that Article 5 of the Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) (Amendment) Act, 2013 has banned all sorts of commercial activities to promote tobacco usage as unlawful and punishable offense. the punishment for advertising tobacco and tobacco products, under the existing law, is a simple imprisonment or a monetary fine not exceeding Tk. 100,000 or both the penalties and if the offence is found again, the punishment will be doubled or tripled accordingly.