Managers of companies can often be faced with ethical dilemmas, especially in advertising if their product is not particularly safe, such as tobacco. These companies want to show their product in a good way. (Carpenter, Taylor, & Erdogan, 2009) In order to dissuade adolescents from consuming tobacco, the Government of India announced on Feb 6, 2001 that they would create a bill that banned tobacco companies from advertising their products and no longer would allow them to sponsor cultural or sporting events. This was part of an anti-tobacco program in India. This decision created intense debate due to ethical reasons as well as whether or not it would be achievable.
In 2001 the government of India stated that it will soon pass a bill “banning tobacco companies from Advertising their products and sponsoring sports and cultural events.” The reason for the ban was to Keep young adults away from tobacco products, and from consuming it. It was also so that they can help Aid the government to pitch an anti-tobacco program. Finland, Norway and France have are all countries That have enforced the same idea of banishments of tobacco Ads. Those that oppose the ban believed It to be unnecessary and a violation of their private lives. For the people who were all in for the ban Thought otherwise.
Arguments in favor of the ban on tobacco advertising in India There are many people that think that smokers should be capable of deciding by themselves what was good or bad for their health and that, therefore it had to play the role of a responsible mother. Amit Sarkar, Editor, Tobacco News said that “Adults who consume tobacco do so of their own free choice. The risk falls entirely on them and is fully explained to them. If we lose sight of this principle, then we lose sight of the truth on which all the free societies depend, namely that freedom and risks are inextricable, and whomsoever assumes the right to save us from risks, is also assuming right to limit our freedom". The Supreme Court in Canada, held, "The State seeks to control the thought, beliefs and behavior of its citizens along the line it considers acceptable.
Let’s scrutinize the first of all the proponents' arguments then the opponents' arguments of the ban on tobacco advertising in India. The Proponents arguments The policy implemented by the government was consistent with the constitution as it empowers the government to take care and protects its citizens. The consumption of tobacco products harms roughly the health of the consumers because its consumption has been the cause of over 4.023 million deaths in 1998 and the number of victims is increasing, according to the world Health Organization (WHO). The advertising activities of the tobacco industry target the
The cigarette companies asserted that their adverts were only targeted at people who were already smokers and thus not targeted at non-smokers, a survey which was conducted by the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) was used to defend their position that tobacco adverts did not persuade people to take up smoking. The survey results showed that 49% of the people surveyed admitted that they started smoking to see what it was like, 24% said their friends smoke and crucially for critics of the ban, none of the people surveyed said advertisements persuaded them to smoke. It was also noted that some supporters of the ban claimed that the government was spending substantial amounts on offering healthcare to more of its citizens as a consequence of illnesses attributed to smoking, opponents of the ban in reply to this contended that as was the case in developing nations like India, overall spending on healthcare, insurance and pension systems were so insignificant that the claim that India's government was expending a lot of its resources on healthcare was
• If the age to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products were raised, businesses would be able to recoup lost revenues in productivity and health care costs. Employers across Indiana lose a total of $3.2 billion a year in lost productivity (Indiana Tobacco Quitline,
The Government of India has wanted to start an anti-Tobacco Program by discouraging young people from smoking. The first step to achieve such program was to ban advertising from Tobacco Companies. This included the advertisement of tobacco products and sponsorship at sports and cultural events. From the ethical standpoint the government felt responsible for the wellbeing of its citizens so it had to come up with a plan or a program to discourage smoking. The government argued that Tobacco was a toxic product which caused death when consumed as the companies intended.
This means that the information, which is from cigarettes advertisement, could lead to many side effects to people that are linked to health problems. According to Data 2, which is the bans on advertising, promotion and sponsorship data from the WHO report, it is clearly seen that controlling the policies on cigarette advertisement has been used by many countries around the world. There have shown that 101 countries, which are high-income, middle-income and low-income countries, take most actions on the TV, radio and print media (WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2011). What is more, according to the Data 6 of comparing the countries that ban all kind of the cigarettes advertisements and those that are not which is taken from the Worldbank on public health, it is noticeable that the country which take the banning action could decrease much more amount of tobacco consumption than those which are not such as the downward trend of cigarette consumption from over 1700 in 1981 to under 1500 per capita in 1991 (Measures To Reduce The Demand For Tobacco, 2011). By looking at these data, it is obvious that banning the cigarettes advertisement is an effective way that can help reducing the cigarettes
If the answer is “no” to both questions, Donaldson would states that the practice is probably ethical. If at least one answer is “yes”, then practice is impossible (Donaldson, 2003). Ethical conflict between Google Inc. and the Chinese government is based not on economic differences, but on cultural and political issues. Thereby, we have the second type of conflict. Was is possible for Google Inc. to make business successfully without following Chinese business practice?
TABLE OF CONTENTS Indian Cigarette Industry 2 Porter’s five force analysis 3 External environment analysis 6 Industry trends 7 Conclusion 8 Appendix 9 Sources 10 INDIAN CIGARETTE INDUSTRY In India, where farmers cultivate wide variety of crops, tobacco is cultivated as a cash crop of national importance. Out of the total cultivated area it is restricted to 0.3 %, but it still plays a prominent role in the development of nation’s economy. Among the various tobacco products cigarettes account for the major revenue, by contributing 70% of the tax1 from tobacco while other tobacco products contribute only 30%. The cigarette industry in India is one of the oldest industries. It is labor intensive and provides livelihood