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🔶 INSTRUCTIONS
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🔶 TARGET_SITE
Medical Daily
🔶 PRIMARY_KEYWORDS
tobacco marketing to children, ultra-processed foods, e-cigarette flavors
🔶 AUDIENCE
Health-conscious parents
🔶 TONE
informative, cautionary
🔶 DATELINE_LOCATION
GENEVA
🔶 EVERGREEN_BACKGROUND_TOPICS
Public health, addiction, corporate responsibility
🔶 ORIGINAL_BRAND_TERMS
NewsBlaze, Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant, CNS
GENEVA – A coalition of health experts is urging governments worldwide to implement stricter regulations on industries that market addictive products to children, drawing parallels between tactics used by the tobacco, ultra-processed food, and nicotine industries. The World Health Organization (WHO) and Corporate accountability are calling for policies that prioritize public health over corporate profits, emphasizing the need to hold these industries accountable for targeting vulnerable populations.
These industries employ strategies such as artificial flavors, excessive sugar, colorful packaging, and digital marketing to attract young consumers, perhaps leading to lifelong consumption of harmful products.
“Industries that profit from harmful products strategically design and market these products to target children and adolescents,” saeid Ashka Naik,Chief Research and Policy Officer at Corporate Accountability. “This manipulation results from weak policies and corporate greed that prioritize profit over health.We must challenge these harmful dynamics and advocate for policies that protect public health.”
## The Purposeful Tactics of Addiction
Experts argue that the industry’s approach is not accidental but a calculated effort to maximize profits, exploiting vulnerabilities through addictive ingredients and permissive regulatory environments. Strategies range from point-of-sale tactics to partnerships with influencers, all designed to normalize harmful consumption patterns among children.
Daniel Dorado, Tobacco Campaign Director of Corporate Accountability, highlighted the industry’s co-option of the political agenda, enabling them to profit from products that cause harm while evading responsibility.
Organisations like WHO and UNICEF have recommended restricting the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children across the americas.
## Parallels Between Tobacco and ultra-Processed Foods
Jaime Arcila, Senior Researcher at Corporate Accountability, noted the similarities between the tobacco and ultra-processed food industries, stating, “Tobacco and ultra-processed food industries follow a playbook designed not to protect public health, but to protect profit. They shape public perception, influence policymaking, and push back against regulation – all while their products drive addiction and disease.”
Arcila pointed out that in Colombia, after tobacco sponsorships were banned, the ultra-processed food industry quickly filled the void, employing similar tactics to target young consumers.Addes Javier Zúñiga, legal coordinator for the power of the consumer-Mexico, added, “In Mexico, food and beverage advertising targeted at children is not just pervasive – it is indeed manipulative.These marketing strategies are designed to shape children’s preferences, influence their purchase requests, and alter their long-term eating habits.”
## The Ongoing Threat of Tobacco
The discussion also addressed the specific dangers of tobacco, with Jaime Arcila emphasizing that “Cigarettes are not a cultural tradition – they are an industrial addiction, engineered to be deadly and tough to quit.”
Arcila referenced Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on tobacco Control (FCTC), which prioritizes public health over industry influence, calling for governments to uphold their responsibility to hold these industries accountable.
## Understanding the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)
the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is the first international treaty negotiated under the auspices of the world Health Organization. It is indeed an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health. the FCTC represents a commitment by ratifying nations to implement a range of measures designed to reduce the prevalence of tobacco use, including advertising bans, smoke-free environments, and health warnings on packaging. As of 2025, 182 countries and the European Union have ratified the treaty.
## Urgent Call to Action
With World No Tobacco Day approaching on May 31,2025,and the World Conference on Tobacco Control 2025,Dr. Kerstin Schotte, medical Officer at the WHO, is advocating for immediate action to combat tobacco and nicotine addiction.
Dr. Tara Singh Bam, Board Director of Asia Pacific Cities Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT) and Asia Pacific Director (Tobacco Control) at Vital Strategies, stressed the preventability of tobacco-related diseases and deaths, urging governments to fully implement the global tobacco treaty.
The WHO also calls for governments to ban flavors and filters in tobacco products, implement plain packaging, and prohibit advertising, particularly on digital platforms.Dr. Schotte highlighted the deceptive use of flavors in e-cigarettes to attract young users, noting that the majority of over 16,000 e-cigarette flavors are targeted at youth. She also debunked the myth that shisha is less hazardous than cigarettes.
Regarding filters, Dr Schotte said, “One major deception strategy of the tobacco industry has been to promote filters as a so-called ‘safer alternative’ to unfiltered cigarettes… In fact, filters make it easier for cigarette smokers to start because it is less harsh in your throat.”
## Hope in People Power
Jaime Arcila expressed optimism that civil society movements can hold these industries accountable, citing the ejection of Philip Morris from its association with the Canadian government as an example.The experts concluded by emphasizing that ending tobacco use is both a public health and a human rights imperative, urging governments to prioritize public health over corporate profits.
