I’m a huge fan of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the World Cup T-20 cricket matches, and spend most evenings glued to television channels. The thrill is unmatched, but there’s something that catches my attention just as much as the action on the field: the advertisements that air between overs.
The shorter-format has a massive viewership, probably the biggest in sports today. So, it’s no shock that ads from big companies with high sales pop up during these breaks. However, it’s notable that many of these ads are for gambling apps and “elaichi” and “masala” products, highlighting our consumption trends and the businesses that can afford such high-profile ads.
Gambling apps have fast disclaimers in their ads, but celebrities promoting harmless-looking elaichi or masala products have none. These products might be sneaky ads for oral tobacco, similar to alcohol ads disguised as mineral water. While legal, are these endorsements ethical? Do celebrities choose based on ethics or just for money? Does the commercial world care about ideals?
Most discussions about tobacco focus on smoking and more recently, vaping. But in India, the primary mode of tobacco consumption is smokeless — through products like gutka and paan masala. According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS 2017), a staggering 29 pc of Indians over 15 years old consume tobacco.
Shockingly, India leads the world in oral tobacco use, with a prevalence rate exceeding 20 pc. The World Health Organisation estimates that tobacco consumption, including chewing, is responsible for up to 90 per cent of mouth cancer cases in India. This increase has paralleled the rising use of pouched tobacco.
The Indian government has taken steps to combat tobacco use. Bans on smoking in public places and regular price hikes for cigarettes have curbed smoking to some extent, but this has merely shifted consumers toward oral tobacco. Since 2011, most Indian states have banned the production and sale of gutka (a mix of masala and tobacco). Yet, these bans are tough to enforce and are often challenged in courts, sometimes successfully.
Eradicating tobacco through bans alone is an uphill battle. Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances around. Most users know the dangers, but once hooked, the need to satisfy their nicotine craving overrides their desire to quit.
At local levels, street vendors often sell flavoured mouth fresheners along with small amounts of cheap or free oral tobacco. People mix these, feeding their addiction. This dependence leads to serious health issues like heart disease, strokes, lung cancer, and oral cancer.
The key to reducing tobacco use is education and preventing nicotine addiction from starting. It is easier to stop young people from starting to use tobacco than to help quit later. Education plays a vital role, but when beloved icons endorse masala products, it weakens these efforts.
Tobacco devastates families and users. Half of all tobacco users will die from related illnesses, losing about ten years of their lives. In India, tobacco-related cancers cause 42% of male and 18% of female cancer deaths among people aged 30-69 years. These deaths, the largest contributors to early mortality, are preventable.
Children idolise athletes for their incredible athletic feats, but they also witness them endorsing products that are deemed unhealthy by parents and doctors. How can fizzy drinks and junk foods be unhealthy when endorsed by sports icons, children ask? A famous cricketer’s episode with cancer can make his fans wonder – was this due to soft drinks? You like it or not, kids look up to you, and tend to mimic you in their behavioural choices.
We can’t let the next generation repeat the mistakes. Our role-models should exhort that tobacco is addictive and harmful. Be the leader we know you can be. If you lack ethics in what you promote, loopholes will prevail.
