There’s a new Marlboro Man, and she’s an Instagram influencer: Actually, there are many, according to a petition filed by public health advocacy groups asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate tobacco companies’ use of social media campaigns to lure customers. “The tobacco companies are engaging in the same marketing tactics they used in the United States for decades to reach kids and young people–only now they use social media to reach an even wider unlimited audience of all ages to promote their brands and re-normalize tobacco use,” the petition reads. Sheila Kaplan of The New York Times explains how tobacco companies are directing “ambassadors,” paid and unpaid, to post words, images and hashtags meant to further their brands and the allure of smoking more generally. “What they are doing is a really effective way to get around existing laws to restrict advertising to young people,” said Robert V. … [Read more...] about Social Media Campaigns by Big Tobacco Spur Call for Investigation
Social media marketing industry report
Big Tobacco’s Global Reach on Social Media
Sections Skip to content Skip to site index The tobacco industry says it no longer tries to hook new generations of smokers. So what’s behind the legions of beautiful young people in smoking, vaping and partying posts with the same hashtags? Credit Credit Supported by BySheila Kaplan Aug. 24, 2018 It’s been years since the tobacco industry promised to stop luring young people to smoke cigarettes. Philip Morris International says it is “designing a smoke-free future.” British American Tobacco, likewise, claims to be “transforming tobacco” into a safer product. But while the Food and Drug Administration weighs plans to cut nicotine in cigarettes, making them less addictive, Most countries, like the United States, imposed rules back in the 1970s against marketing tobacco to youths; many have banned cigarette commercials on television and radio. So the industry that brought the world the Marlboro Man, Joe … [Read more...] about Big Tobacco’s Global Reach on Social Media
Lack of trust doesn’t keep us off social media
Anick Jesdanun and Ryan Nakashima Associated Press Published 11:51 p.m. UTC Jun 11, 2018 New York – If technology giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon face a common threat to their dominance, it probably lies in a single word: trust. In some respects, these companies are riding high. They have woven themselves into the fabric of our daily lives, making their services indispensable for daily tasks like keeping in touch with family and friends, watching TV and buying cat food. Revenues are up and profits are soaring. But they’ve also drawn the attention of regulators in Europe and the U.S. thanks to carelessness with consumer data and other problems. Facebook’s leaky data controls, for instance, let Cambridge Analytica mine the profiles of up to 87 million people in an attempt to swing elections. The social network has also had to beef up manual oversight to clamp down on the spread of fake news. Google’s YouTube has likewise been implicated in the … [Read more...] about Lack of trust doesn’t keep us off social media
Don’t Drive Distracted, Wireless Industry Says, But Safety Advocates Want More Than Talk
Just after noon on March 29, a pickup truck crossed the center line of a rural road in South Texas and slammed into a church bus, killing 13 members of the First Baptist Church of New Braunfels. A police report said the 20-year-old pickup driver, who survived, had taken medication and was texting. In other words, he was on two drugs, not one. It was a particularly gruesome toll for a single crash, but in recent years thousands have died on the nation’s highways, mostly in ones and twos, as a result of drivers fiddling with their phones. Despite more crashworthy vehicles, in 2016 U.S. traffic deaths reached 40,000, the highest number in years, according to an estimate by the National Safety Council. Distraction from wireless devices is widely suspected to be a factor. 13 people perished in March when a pickup crossed the center line of a two-lane road in The main countermeasures–campaigns exhorting drivers to stay focused and ticketing violators of state bans on texting and … [Read more...] about Don’t Drive Distracted, Wireless Industry Says, But Safety Advocates Want More Than Talk
European consumer’s group calls for a crackdown on “bogus” health claims on sugared-up food products marketed to children
(Natural News) The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) is urging the European Commission (EC) to look into the misleading labels of “unhealthy food and beverage products” that claim to be good for its target markets.The BEUC’s recently launched campaign aims to boycott the EC’s “long-standing failure” to put an end to the “bogus food claims” reportedly made by the various manufacturers of products that have high fat, salt, or sugar content. The EC was initially supposed to publish nutrient profiles nine years ago, and this could have prevented the proliferation of false claims by manufacturers.Pauline Constant, communications manager for food, health, sustainability, and safety, says that the profiles must be published soon. If the profiles remain unpublished, this will turn into a 10-year-old concern. She adds that making the data public can help curb the possibility of an obesity epidemic since consumers need to be made aware that … [Read more...] about European consumer’s group calls for a crackdown on “bogus” health claims on sugared-up food products marketed to children