For a century, the positive development of smoking prevalence was not born of natural evolution but social construction. These have been and are developed by the tobacco industry (TI) using marketing methods that are even more effective since they are hardly noticeable publicly and based on a very powerful instrument of influence: public relationships. This project aims to overturn this by putting these methods at the service of prevention, to deconstruct the images established by the propaganda of TI.
The project objective is thus to implement the appropriate methods of influence and public relations to change the perception of tobacco consumption and its social acceptance by changing the mind of targeted audiences on tobacco products and TI, but also tobacco control.
These objectives will be achieved through four main actions:
1. Give a positive image of tobacco control and strengthen the visibility of its actors.
2. Open new thematics in order to arouse media and political interest and bring new players to fight TI with:
• ‘Human Rights and Tobacco’ including collaboration with the American NGO ASH (a module Tobacco & Environment has been added)
• ‘Heart of women and tobacco’.
3. Develop a group of influencers to disseminate these advocacy campaigns.
4. Encourage companies to cut their financial ties with TI, in collaboration with Tobacco-Free-Portfolios (Australia).
The resulting denormalization of tobacco will contribute to decrease smoking prevalence in France. Today, in a market where tobacco advertising is banned and despite strong preventive measures decided in recent years, tobacco addiction persists at a high level, particularly among young people and women, maintained by TI influence and public relations. The purpose of this project is to neutralize TI operations and reverse their effects by tackling the last marketing vectors accessible to this industry.