Stop Big Tobacco from Undermining
"Smoke-Free" World Cup 2002

Take Action!
May 2002

The theme of this year's World No Tobacco Day (May 31st) is "Tobacco-Free Sports." The day also marks the kick off of the World Cup 2002, which will take place in Korea and Japan this year. Appropriately, the World Cup will be smoke-free. But that hasn't stopped the tobacco industry from profiting off of associating their cigarette brands with the mega soccer event.

In at least three countries tobacco companies are sponsoring television coverage of the World Cup! And in one country, BAT just launched a "youth program" by donating 20 soccer balls to an organization that works with street children. Please see below for information from Malaysia, Pakistan, Niger, and Uganda.

TAKE ACTION! Find out whether or not the tobacco industry is sponsoring television coverage of the World Cup (or in any way linking soccer and tobacco leading up to the event) in your and your partner's countries. Inquire with advertising managers for national media. Look and listen
for television, radio, and print tobacco advertisements related to the World Cup.

IF SO, here are some follow-up actions that we strongly encourage you and your global partner to take. Inoussa Saouna (SOS-Tabagisme, NIGER) and Laurent Huber (ASH, USA) are already working together to address the situation in Niger!:

1. Contact the television station and demand that it immediately halt all tobacco-industry sponsored advertising related to the World Cup 2002.

2. Send a letter to the tobacco company to denounce its irresponsible disregard for public health. Demand that it immediately halt all tobacco advertising related to the World Cup 2002.

3. Alert your regional World Health Organization office to the matter, and urge them to get WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative involved. WHO signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) for a tobacco-free World Cup, and this is being violated. See: http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/aofm/0205/FIFA-WHOTobaccoFreeAgreement.pdf

For regional WHO contact info see: http://www5.who.int/tobacco/page.cfm?sid=35.

4. Issue a press release to local, national and international press. See example from Malaysia:
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/aofm/0205/prmalaysia.html

5. Send a protest letter to FIFA in Switzerland. Encourage groups in your networks to do so as well. Refer to WHO-FIFA MOU. Include copy of press release. See example from Malaysia:
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/aofm/0205/FIFA.html

6. Write to your Ministry of Health to protest the clash between World No Tobacco Day and the tobacco industry's sponsorship of the World Cup telecast. Ask that the government intervene.

7. Organize an international email/fax campaign directed at one of the above entities (television station, FIFA etc). Essential Action can forward your appeal to all GPTC participants.

8. If your example relates to BAT, write a 300 word letter-to-the-editor about BAT's complete lack of "social responsibility" for an upcoming ASH-UK publication. Submit to: Ned Bagg <[email protected]> and Clive Bates <[email protected]>

9. If you do not receive a favorable response, organize a demonstration leading up to or on World No Tobacco Day in front of the tobacco company's headquarters. Mobilize lots of youth to participate. Think of appropriate chants. Bring signs and banners.

SPECIAL THANKS to Mary Assunta (Consumers Association of Penang) for suggesting most of these ideas. Mary is currently fighting BAT's sponsorship of World Cup television coverage in Malaysia. For more info: <[email protected]>

This is an excellent issue to incorporate into your WNTD 2002 activities! If the tobacco industry is not sponsoring World Cup 2002 television coverage in your or your partner's country, please support the efforts of our colleagues in other countries. For example, send a letter to FIFA to denounce BAT's sponsorship of World Cup 2002 television coverage in Malaysia.

Let us know what you find out & what actions you and your partner will take!

Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control
Essential Action
P.O. Box 19405
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: +1 202-387-8030
Fax: +1 202-234-5176
Email: [email protected]

PAKISTAN: USE OF WORLD CUP FOR TOBACCO MARKETING
While all over the world people are working to dissociate sports from tobacco, in Pakistan tobacco companies are using the forthcoming World Cup to market tobacco to the youth of Pakistan. Four weeks before the World Cup, they started airing television programs with highlights of previous World Cups along with extensive cigarette advertising. They have also announced various sweepstakes in relation to football matches, in which over one kilogram of gold is being offered as a prize. The tobacco companues know very well that youth are very much interested and excited about this coming World Cup, and they are making best use of this event to make our youth addicted to tobacco. On the other hand they advertise and say that "we do not target children" and "smoking is for adults only." Please see attached advertisement which the tobacco company ran on the front page of a daily news paper: "ENJOY THE WORLDCUP WITH DIPLOMAT CIGARETTE" (Diplomat is a brand of Lackson Tobacco company, a subsidiary of Philip Morris)
-- Javaid A. Khan, Aga Khan University, Department of Medicine <[email protected]>

NIGER: BAT TO BROADCAST WORLD CUP 2002 LIVE ON GIANT SCREENS
British American Tobacco appears intent on undermining FIFA's tobacco-free policy and on doing everything it can to rob Niger from enjoying a tobacco-free World Cup. In 1996, BAT signed a 10 year contract with the Soccer Federation of Niger (Fédération Nigérienne de Football FENIFOOT). This contract ensures the promotion of BAT Rothman cigarettes in soccer fields throughout Niger.
In 1998 BAT built 7 "New Line" pavilions and placed them strategically in Niamey's intersections, even in front of schools. These pavilions are a gathering place where youth congregate, play and have
access to cheap cigarettes. It is in those pavillions that BAT will broadcast live matches of the World Cup 2002 on giant screens. Unfortunately BAT's marketing behaviors will ensure that children will be bombarded with pro-tobacco messages during World Cup 2002 events. The WHO's message of "Tobacco free sports" will be lost in Niger because BAT is creating a positive association between tobacco and Niger's number one sport, soccer. What kind of "social responsibility" is this?
-- Inoussa Saouna, SOS-Tabagisme <[email protected]> and Laurent Huber, Action on Smoking and Health (USA) <[email protected]>

UGANDA: BAT LAUNCHES YOUTH PREVENTION CAMPAIGN WITH SOCCER
Yesterday, BAT launched its youth campaign with a donation of over Ug. Shs. 6,000,000 (approximagely $ 3,360) and 20 footballs to Tigers Club, a local ngo dealing with resettlement of street children. The footballs are inscribed with "youth smoking prevention" and were donated to "encourage youth to take on sports instead of smoking." The donations were mobilised by former BAT employee Cammeille Petland and her husband. The story is in Uganda's national daily New Vision.
-- Philip Karugaba, The Environmental Action Network Ltd. [from Globalink] <[email protected]>

And good news from...

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: BAT WILL NOT SPONSOR WORLD CUP BROADCASTS
I rang EM-TV, the major national TV station, and spoke to Micharel Harvey, the Sales Manager, and he assured me in categoric terms that the World Cup broadcasts in Papua New Guinea will not be sponsored by BAT and tobacco. He further assured me that EM-TVs policy is now against tobacco in sports events, though there are some sports themselves still sponsored by BAT in the country. This is positive news in a country where for the last 15 years (since the Tobacco Control Act of 1987) when sports and cultural sponsorships by BAT were their major advertising medium.
-- Colin Richardson, ASH-PNG [from FCA listserv] <[email protected]>

And while on the topic...

KOREA: NEW CIGARETTE BRAND TAPS INTO WORLD CUP 2002 POPULARITY
Last month, Choi Jin Sook of the Korean Association on Smoking and Health reported that her country's tobacco monopoly (which has been forced to compete more effectively against aggressive transnational corporations) has issued a new line of soccer-themed cigarettes. View cigarette packs.

For more information about Big Tobacco & sports around the world see http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/qofm/0203a.html

Essential Action
Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control
P.O. Box 19405 ~ Washington, DC 20036
Tel: +1 202-387-8030 ~ Fax: +1 202-234-5176
Email: [email protected]
www.essentialaction.org/tobacco