Tobacco advertising: advertising industry and SGV call for implementation with a sense of proportion

The vote restores the balance between an overpowering tobacco lobby with huge resources and powerless parents, Grégoire Vittoz, the director of Addiction Switzerland told French-speaking Swiss radio RTS on Sunday.

There are examples from abroad of public health policies that are effective when it comes to tobacco. Switzerland should follow this example, Vittoz continued. The Cancer League said that the yes vote was a step towards ensuring that children would not become the cancer patients of tomorrow.

Like the Cancer League, the Lung League and other organizations, Addiction Switzerland belongs to the sponsors of the initiative "Yes to the protection of children and young people from tobacco advertising".

Victory over tobacco lobby

The SP praised the victory over the tobacco lobby. Parliament must now finally draw up a bill that ensures that children and young people are not tempted to smoke.

On behalf of the pro-committee, Bernese SP National Councilor Flavia Wasserfallen told SRF radio that the counter-proposal, the Tobacco Products Act, was too full of holes. Thus, tobacco advertising would have remained permitted in free media that are popular with young people, as would the sponsoring of festivals.

The Green Liberals announced on Twitter that the protection of children and young people as well as the health of the next generation should be given higher priority than a business model based on addiction. For the EPP, the time has also come to strengthen the protection of young people. Society bears responsibility for young people.

Ban advertising altogether

The Young Greens immediately made a far-reaching demand. Alluding to the campaign of the opponents of the initiative, the young party headlined "and now the Cervelat" and demanded a general ban on advertising for consumer goods. Advertising creates artificial incentives and needs and is thus harmful to society. The result is "insatiable overconsumption.

The Blue Cross also used the "yes" vote to call for more far-reaching steps. It was imperative that parliament improve the Tobacco Products Act. In particular, the organization envisages sanctions for illegal tobacco sales and mandatory identification on the Internet.

In view of the upcoming revision of the tobacco tax law, the organization demanded a tax increase that would make smoking more expensive for young people.

Encroachment on economic freedom

The bourgeois parties and the business associations regretted the result. A ban on advertising a legal product is not compatible with economic freedom, wrote the FDP, echoing the general tenor.

Young people would not be seduced into smoking by advertising, but by peer pressure. The Yes to the initiative would open the door for further advertising bans on products considered health risks: Alcohol, fat, sugar and more.

The SVP saw in the result a further departure of Switzerland from the liberal order and "prohibitionist Switzerland on the advance". It would continue to do everything "to stop the destructive drive of the left-green paternalistic policy". St. Gallen SVP National Councilor Mike Egger of the opponents' committee accused the proponents on SRF radio of having waged a "dirty campaign".

The business umbrella organization Economiesuisse wrote that the vote should not be interpreted as a general rejection of advertising. Under no circumstances was it a precedent for further advertising bans. The Swiss Trade Association saw an entire industry as being patronized.

The advertising industry associations stated that the concerns of the initiative were largely met in the counter-proposal, the Tobacco Products Act. The ban on the sale of tobacco to young people under the age of 18 is provided for there, as is the disappearance of tobacco advertising from public spaces. In addition, tobacco advertising aimed at children and young people is already banned. (SDA)