The directorate general of health services is said to have requested the Indian cricket board to stop displaying surrogate in-stadium advertisement of smokeless tobacco products endorsed by Bollywood celebrities and cricketers. This follows a report highlighting the large volume of surrogate advertising of gutkha products in cricket stadiums during the World Cup played in India last year.
The report revealed that, of all the ads for smokeless tobacco brands, 41.3 percent were displayed during cricket matches. Of these, 40.3 percent were shown during matches featuring the Indian team, while 37.8 percent were shown during the matches played by four other South Asian countries—Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. There is no doubt about the intent behind the choice of these countries. Their large cricket-loving viewership was being targeted for the sale of tobacco products. While India has enacted strong legislation to ban the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of all tobacco products, surrogate advertising has been rampant on the electronic media as a gateway to surreptitious product promotion.
The study on advertising during the World Cup was conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) along with Vital Strategies, an international health NGO. The authorship of a leading government science agency like the ICMR renders the report less vulnerable to the tobacco industry’s reflexive attack that internationally-funded NGOs are aiming to weaken Indian economy by reducing tobacco consumption—an evasive tactic it has often employed in the past to divert attention from the health harms of tobacco. It remains to be seen if the health ministry’s appeal would influence a powerful body like the cricket board to curtail surrogate advertising of tobacco products, prioritising public health over revenue.
The Paris Olympics of 2024, too, has not escaped controversy over sports providing a platform for the promotion of products that are harmful to health. Public health advocates have protested against Coca-Cola being associated as a major sponsor of this sporting spectacle. Editorials in The Lancet and the British Medical Journal have questioned the choice of a leading manufacturer of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), providing the company ample opportunity for product promotion on the world stage. Coca-Cola’s multi-billion-dollar deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) gives an unrivalled global outreach for promoting its products. Outraged by this cynical indifference to the glaring contradiction between the IOC’s professed commitment to promotion of physical fitness and partnership with a corporate sponsor commanding a global market in SSBs, 80 public health and sustainability organisations launched a campaign to ‘Kick Big Soda out of sport’ before the start of the Paris Olympics.
The health harms of SSBs, ultra-processed foods (UPF) and tobacco are well known, with abundant scientific evidence justifying public health opposition to their promotion through sports and entertainment industries. SSBs and UPFs lead to obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, brain strokes, heightened risk of some cancers and even dementia. By disrupting the protective gut microbiome (dysbiosis) and stoking inflammation in body tissues, they can cause several diseases and shorten life expectancy. Tobacco consumption—active and passive, smoked and chewed—has been associated with the risk of over 20 medical disorders and is a leading cause of premature death.
The fact that these advertised addictions lead to many ‘marketed maladies’ has not deterred sports bodies from accepting patronage of companies which mass-market them, or inhibited celebrity entertainers and sportspersons from endorsing the products or their thinly-veiled surrogates. More than other forms of advertising, sponsorship and promotion, sports and entertainment have tremendous reach among young persons. It is the aim of marketers to capture their attention, entice them to experience them and entrap them in lifelong addictions that sadly curtail the prospect of a long life.
Three leading Hindi film actors have recently drawn criticism for advertising pan masala products. A social media post attributed to actor John Abraham criticises them for ‘selling death’. He is quoted as saying, “I won’t sell death, because it is a matter of principle. If I practise what I preach, then I am a role model.” Advertisements for a range of SSBs by film actors and cricketers have flooded TV screens, magazines and newspapers for over two decades. Their manufacturers have sponsored several sporting tournaments and celebrity events, reaping the benefits of social acceptance, youth adulation and identification with an aspirational lifestyle.
There have been many honourable exceptions besides John Abraham. Pullela Gopichand declined lucrative offers to advertise for SSBs after he won the All England Badminton Championship. He was pained to see bottled SSBs replacing buttermilk as the customary welcoming drink in his village. Rahul Dravid became an ambassador for tobacco control for India’s health ministry and the World Health Organization. Even Amitabh Bachchan is reported to have stopped endorsing Pepsi after a little girl asked him why he “endorsed poison”. Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo pointedly removed Coca-Cola bottles from a table in front of him during a televised press conference at Euro 2020.
It is essential that we prioritise people’s health over corporate profits. It is not a matter of individual choice, as the industry insists, if young minds are being conditioned by high-pressure advertising that positions their products as essential components of an aspirational lifestyle. In public interest, governments must regulate and prevent such advertising, promotion and sponsorship. The self-regulation offered by industry has failed in many countries. Promises made by SSB manufacturers to the WHO were not kept.
Simultaneously, government agencies must partner with civil society organisations and academia to provide health and nutrition literacy to the public. Sportspersons and film stars can play a major role in spreading this knowledge, shaping attitudes and influencing practices. If they truly envision a healthy India, where young persons lead long and productive lives, they must consider this to be part of their civic duty. Surely they would like many superbly fit achievers to carry on their tradition of excellence into the stadium and on to the screens of the future.
(Views are personal)
(ksrinath.reddy@phfi.org)
K Srinath Reddy | Distinguished Professor of Public Health and former President, Public Health Foundation of India
