To the point: Smoke-free or fun-free?

After all, I wanted to be kissed and then not taste like an ashtray. So I smoked exactly one cigarette in my life - and that was it. I find smoking creepy. Nevertheless, in view of the debate about the new tobacco product law, I think: "Leave smokers alone for once!"

Other people have never drunk a single beer in their lives or never touched wine. Or they do without chocolate altogether. For me, that would be completely unthinkable. If health, prevention and youth organizations now demand a total ban on advertising tobacco products in the new Tobacco Products Act, then Frey and Läderach should no longer be allowed to advertise their Easter bunnies, and breweries or wine merchants should no longer be allowed to advertise their fine wines. Because chocolate and alcohol, like smoke, are unhealthy.

Of course, the person who drinks alcohol and eats chocolate multiplies his own private belly and his own health risks, while the smoker sometimes blows his exhaust into the faces of others. But we should also get a grip on this with more generosity for one another. If smokers are not systematically turned away and branded, they might also be more likely to accept that their smoke is not so appreciated themselves. It would be worth a try.

The popular initiative of the Blue Cross of the Canton of Zurich goes in the same direction as the new Tobacco Products Act. It wants to ban alcohol advertising on sports fields and at sporting events in the canton of Zurich in general, thus further tightening the nationwide advertising ban on high-proof alcohol at sporting events that is already in place.

All these advertising bans wear the halo of prevention. But is it the job of advertisers and advertising companies to prevent health problems by refraining from advertising? And should legislators order them to do so? In my opinion: No! Advertising draws attention to new products, it makes our lives more colorful and can have the power to bind people to a brand. But do you think a young person today still reaches for a cig because they've seen advertising for it? Those days have long since ridden off into the sunset with the Malboro Man.

Of course it would be better if fewer young people smoked. And of course alcohol and sports don't belong together. But it is the responsibility of parents and guardians to make children and young people aware of the dangers of such pleasures. What impresses young people least is the raised forefinger. And what irritates them most are prohibitions. It would be better to show young people how to deal wisely with stimulants. Perhaps we would be amazed at how many decide against intemperate smoking and drinking because they want to do so themselves.

More and more laws and bans eventually lead to a fun-free society. And to the loss of one's own ability to judge.

Anne-Friederike Heinrich, Editor in Chief
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