Tobacco ban in Britain

Tobacco advertising was to be banned in Britain by the end of 2002. This initiative, called the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act, also prohibits the promotion of tobacco products through free gifts, coupons, and spam mail. The government predicted the ban would have saved 3,000 lives a year and reduce National Health Service bills by £340m.

However, there is no evidence of a clear connection between tobacco advertising and numbers of smokers :

Conservative health spokesman Tim Loughton argued a clear link between advertising and smoking numbers had not been proved." Nobody is disputing that smoking is harmful - it is, it's a filthy habit, we hate it, we would like it to be rather less prevalent among the population, particularly the young," he said. Tim Lord, chief executive of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association said: "We have always believed that banning all forms of tobacco advertising will not achieve the Government's aim of reducing smoking. "We are particularly disheartened that we will lose the right to talk to our adult consumers." Our main focus is now to co-operate with the Government and officials to ensure that the regulations governing implementation of the Bill are as practical and workable as possible, particularly from the point of view of retailers."

From the social point of view, ban for advertising in such industry as tobacco can be easily justified. It is a bad habit that most smokers want to get rid of, and it is even harmful to nonsmokers. But are the acts of bureaucrats driven only by the desire to stop smoking? As we found in class, this is not the case. In such an oligopolic industry as tobacco, major firms might invest resources to induce the government (income of the government officials is often supplemented by bribes and gifts) to grant them market power through promotion of the advertising ban. This prevents other firms from breaking into the market, which drives prices up and creates rent for the major firms.