Tobacco advertising

Tobacco advertising is the advertising of tobacco products or use (typically cigarette smoking) by the tobacco industry through a variety of media including sponsorship, particularly of sporting events. It is now one of the most highly regulated forms of marketing. Some or all forms of tobacco advertising are banned in many countries.

Singapore
In Singapore, tobacco advertising was completely banned on 1 March 1971, whereby all kinds of advertising on newspapers and magazines was strictly prohibited, under the Prohibition of Advertisements relating to Smoking Act, 1970. Tobacco advertisements on radio, television and on neon signs ceased on 31 December 1970, after which only anti-smoking slogans were permitted to be broadcast on television and radio. With the ban on tobacco advertisements for the purpose of anti-smoking, the Ministry of Culture had appealed to coffee shops, hotels, restaurants, canteens, snack bars and bars to co-operate with the government to remove all posters, signs and other forms of advertisements relating to smoking. A Smoking Advertisement Unit was set up by the Ministry, and officers were located in areas that had any type of tobacco advertisement within the few months before the blanket ban on tobacco advertising kicked off on 1 March 1971. Twenty-one years later, in 1992, cigarette advertising in foreign magazines was banned in Singapore.

Singapore similarly requires cigarette manufacturers to print images of mouths, feet and blood vessels adversely affected by smoking.