We've never been so spinsulted in our life
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Tobacco ads spread like cancer on Youtube
EVER RESOURCEFUL tobacco firms have turned to the Internet to get around advertising bans, according to a research report.
Researchers from New Zealand have just published the findings of their study into tobacco marketing and found that the 'unregulated' web is fast becoming the route through which ads hit users' eyeballs, and lungs.
The researchers carried out searches on the videosharing site Youtube, in which they looked for instances of cigarette promotion, and they found enough to fill a rather large ashtray.
The majority of tobacco brand related videos - 71 per cent - had pro-tobacco content, they found, while just 3.7 per cent had anti-smoking content. Perhaps unsurprisingly the researchers found that most of the videos also contained the manufacturer's brand name or smoking imagery. They even managed to find a pro-smoking music video that had over two million views.
They also found that in the main the videos fell under one of four categories - celebrities/movies, sports, music, and 'archive' - the first three of which should appeal to teens and the last to librarians.
According to the BBC, which has gone without fags to buy the report, Malboro has the most content on Youtube, however the firm denied that it had anything to do with it. Ken Garcia, spokesman for Marlboro-makers Philip Morris USA, said the company does not "post cigarette brand marketing on YouTube".
Other historical films that show people smoking in a positive manner include clips involving the Beatles, and er, the Flintstones. µ
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If you are dumb enough to pick up a fag and start smoking in this day and age, then you only prove Darwin was 100% correct. Saves lots of $$$ for the govt not to have to provide health care to the elderly.
In the UK the receipts from tax and duty on tobacco is estimated at roughly five times what it costs the NHS to treat smokers. 10 Billion GBP vs 2 Billion GBP.
What I have an issue with is somebody browsing youtube and deliberately watching and advert, seems weird to me.
Not so many people start smoking as adults. Not tobacco, anyway.
Otherwise, China, India, the Third World are where the market for tobacco habituation can be expanded.
@Spork
In countries that provide basic human rights such as free universal healthcare for all the financial strain on the health services far outweighs the tax income from smokers.
I am not surprised by this, as it's getting near impossible for tobacco companies to advertise anywhere. Their last bastion of advertising hope, magazines, sit dusty on store shelves now, as nobody can be bothered to buy them anymore what with the internet and all...
I know this is a tech site and not a tobacco discussion site, but with the amount of tax dollars the gov's collect from smokers every year, you would think that a little advertising by them would be ok, as long as it doesn't target children.
But I guess that's just proof of how the gov can say one thing and do another, as they are more than happy to collect all those tax dollars from smokers but want to ban smoking.
Go figure.
Smoking is bad, mmkay? It harms your lungs, makes your house and your mouth stink and even can shrink your wiener.
With that being said, all the anti-smoking propaganda gets on my nerves. People will quit smoking when they want it, not when you tell them.
Youtube is good for pirated shows AND tobacco ads, and each is equally protected.