Big Tobacco’s profit addiction needs a quit plan – The Mail & Guardian

New legislation seeks to stop tobacco companies from luring non-smoking teens into becoming addicted to their deadly products.

Every year on 31 May, the World Health Organisation hosts World No Tobacco Day. The event shines a spotlight on the harmful effects of tobacco use and rallies global efforts to curb it. This year’s theme calls out the marketing tactics Big Tobacco uses to hook new users — especially young people. 

Because tobacco kills up to half of all lifetime users, tobacco companies must relentlessly seek new customers to sustain their profits. For decades, the industry has targeted young people, knowing that early addiction fuels a lifetime of reliable revenues. Advertising has been the linchpin in enticing each new generation to sustain their deadly trade.

Leveraging loopholes to lure youth

Until the early 2000s, South African media was saturated with tobacco ads in magazines, on billboards and radio, and in cinemas. Many will recall Peter Stuyvesant’s iconic commercials, where vibrant young holidaymakers skied, snorkelled and gallivanted to a rousing soundtrack, capping their day by lighting a cigarette. The government banned these overt ads in 2001. But Big Tobacco didn’t quit — they adapted. 

Today, the industry exploits loopholes in South Africa’s tobacco regulation by using retail points of sale as marketing hubs. Cigarette displays at shop counters dazzle with clever lighting and branded money mats designed to attract attention. 

The tobacco industry claims these set-ups only serve to allow them to vie for market share among existing adult smokers but evidence shows these displays also lure young people. A synthesis of the research on the topic finds that teens frequently exposed to these displays are 1.6 times more likely to try smoking and 1.3 times more likely to consider it in the future. 

The Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, which is being debated in parliament, aims to ban point-of-sale advertising, closing this loophole in the regulatory framework. Global evidence shows that point-of-sale display bans reduce youth smoking experimentation, lower smoking rates among adolescents and diminish perceptions that tobacco is an “ordinary” commodity. 

Predictably, Big Tobacco is opposed to the proposed ban, citing weak excuses that downplay health benefits and inflate retailer costs. In truth, they desperately seek to preserve this vital channel for luring young non-smokers. If point-of-sale displays are banned, it would be a significant setback to the industry.

Vaping’s surge among youth: Big tobacco’s unregulated playbook

As a global wave of tobacco-control legislation and excise-tax increases has stifled the industry’s ability to expand tobacco sales, companies have pivoted to novel products like e-cigarettes to secure their future revenues. Since 2010, giants like British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International, Japan Tobacco International and Imperial Brands have invested heavily in this industry, acquiring or launching brands like Vuse, JUUL and blu. 

In South Africa, Vuse — made by British American Tobacco, producer of the nation’s top-selling Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes — stands out with pop-up stalls and concept stores in shopping malls across the country, signalling Big Tobacco’s bold entry into vaping.

E-cigarettes commonly deliver nicotine, a highly addictive and harmful substance, through flavoured e-liquids like Blue Raspberry and Mint Ice, packaged in sleek, vibrant designs. Sometimes, these products do not contain nicotine; but even these vapes carry health risks, as the chemicals used to create the tasty flavours cause damage to the lung lining and blood vessels. 

In South Africa, e-cigarettes are currently unregulated, enabling Big Tobacco and independent vape companies to populate shopping malls with attractive kiosks and flood youth-heavy platforms like TikTok and Instagram with influencer-driven ads and sponsored content.

In the current regulatory vacuum, vape marketing has thrived unchecked, reaching one in five South Africans aged 16 and older, with exposure to e-cigarette marketing most prevalent among those aged 16 to 19 years (24.6%). Global research links such exposure to higher vaping initiation and use, with flavour-focused social media ads being a particular draw for teens.

The regulatory free-for-all in South Africa has fuelled alarming vaping trends among South African teens. A study of over 25 000 high school students found that 16.8% are current e-cigarette users, with 38% of these users vaping daily and over half using vapes four or more days a week. 

Among those who use e-cigarettes, 88% puff on vapes that contain nicotine and 47% vape within an hour of waking — a clear marker of addiction. The study estimates 60% of teen vapers are addicted to their vapes, reflecting an extent of use and dependence on nicotine that researchers have never encountered with traditional cigarettes in the past. 

The Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill aims to regulate e-cigarettes and other novel products like traditional tobacco by, among other things, banning direct advertising, including at the point of sale. 

Big Tobacco and their front groups claim these products aid smoking cessation among adults wishing to quit tobacco and that advertising bans harm public health by limiting awareness of “safer” alternatives. Yet the World Health Organisation indicates that scant evidence supports these claims, while vibrant flavours, aggressive social media campaigns and alarming youth vaping trends expose Big Tobacco’s predatory focus on South Africa’s youth. 

On World No Tobacco Day 2025, the urgent need to protect South Africa’s young people from exploitative marketing tactics takes centre stage. The Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill rises to this challenge, aiming to regulate vaping, and close loopholes that enable youth-targeted marketing of more traditional tobacco products. 

The Bill is more than regulation: it demands that Big Tobacco and its affiliates end their predatory marketing aimed at young people and protects South Africa’s youth from deceptive tactics which drive lifelong addiction and health harms.

Sam Filby is a research officer at the Research Unit on the Economics of Excisable Products (REEP) at the University of Cape Town and Corné van Walbeek is a professor in economics at UCT and the director of REEP.