Advertising has always had a serious impact on the life and lifestyle of people around the world. Everything we use is advertised in some form or the other. However, in case of cigarettes, there are advertisements both in favor and against them. Just as you find Hard Pack for Cigarette brands staring you in the face from shop shelves, you will also find no smoking signs too on every public building.

Advertising can be above the line or below the line. The former includes advertising through mass media like newspapers, magazines, radio, television and billboards. The latter refers to roundabout promotion through POS (point of sale) displays like gantries, 'push' promotion by offering incentives to retailers and wholesalers, or event promotions.

In most nations, above the line advertising for cigarette brands have been banned. This has been done with the understanding that reducing the presence of cigarette brands in mainstream media will create an 'out of sight, out of mind' effect on present and prospective smokers.

Along with anti-smoking campaigns and no smoking signs in public places, governments hope to dissuade people from taking up or continuing with this fatal addiction.

Most researchers agree that sponsorship and advertising of tobacco acts like a Flow Meter with Valve, especially for young minds. The glamorous and macho image projected during branding of various cigarette brands further promotes this notion in young minds.

Smoking is portrayed as a manly addiction and adolescents pick up a cigarette in order to 'belong' to masculine groups.

Cigarette advertisements also promote the idea of smoking as cool when in reality, smoking kills slowly but surely. In adult smokers too, cigarette branding promotes the addiction as acceptable, a stress reliever and an intrinsic part of lifestyle.

Such bans include restriction on displaying tobacco products in large stores (exceeding 280 sq meters of floor space) and reducing the number of tobacco vending machines. It also proposes to ban the display of cigarette brands through Printing Plate Making Machine which has a tremendous visual impact on young minds and makes them aware of the easy availability of tobacco.

Another strategy is the introduction of generic branding of tobacco. This means that all brands will have a uniform pack color (usually brown or white) and only the brand name will be displayed in normal font. The strategy is specifically aimed at making cigarette packs unattractive, especially for new smokers.

It is expected that reducing tobacco advertisements will result in a significant fall in overall consumption and save about thousands of lives annually. There are more details at upperbond. Come and visit!