Promotion of smoking through social media : implications for social marketing

![CDATA[Social marketing has been widely used to affect health-related behaviours by either creating positive images of healthy behaviours e.g. ‘eat right’ (Evans, 2008) or by focusing on negative appeals, such as those used in road-safety campaigns (Hastings, Stead, & Webb, 2004). However, in the case of smoking, social marketing is assisted by bans on tobacco advertising in most developed countries. As at March 2014, 168 countries had ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) (World Health Organisation, 2013), which requires that signatories shall ‘ … undertake a comprehensive ban of all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship’ (World Health Organisation, 2011, p. 11). The FCTC thus represents an extension of typical social and not-for-profit marketing by attempting to ban any promotion of tobacco, and has been said to be ‘the first and most crucial step in controlling use of tobacco’ (Shibuya et al., 2003, p. 154). In theory, bans on tobacco advertising and promotion lessen the requirement for social marketing campaigns to mitigate the effect of commercial marketing through what has been called ‘counter marketing’ (Peattie & Peattie, 2003). In addition, the example of the FCTC provides a potential template for other social marketing initiatives, such as limiting promotion of fast food to children. However fewer than half of all countries with a ‘comprehensive’ ban on tobacco marketing have achieved high compliance (Henriksen, 2012). In this article, we detail how one tobacco company, Imperial Tobacco, is promoting smoking in the UK, a signatory of the FCTC, and one where tobacco promotion is banned, and discuss implications for social marketing and health policy to limit smoking.]]