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New York Times : No cigarette Ads.
6th May 1999 Chirag Mehta @chime.hypermart.net
Dear friends, I read it on the Net that New York Times has stopped taking Ads from Cigarette companies, as it wants to discourage young people from smoking. Way to go ! Let's hope leading newspapers in India will take that up. Though the revenues from Cigarette Ads are very high, the negative effect these Ads have on our young generation are much worse. The people who are already smoking, do not need any advertisements. Regular smokers tend to stick to one brand and never switch. These Cigarette Ads are directed towards creating new market which generally draw in people between 16 - 22 yrs old. To quit smoking altogether is a very hard job for people who've smoked for decades and hence closing down Cigarette companies is obviously an absurd thought. However, why should a new market be created for something that everybody knows is very harmful ? New York Times has taken a bold step forward. I hope Telegraph or Statesman or Hindustan Times does the same. Let's see who goes Anti-Cigarette first. :-) Chirag Mehta Chime Softwares
17th May 1999
Kiran Kothari @hotmail.com
Dear Chirag and all iinn mates, It indeed moment of happiness for me to read that NYT has stopped taking Cigarette Company Ads. USA has learned the hard way as incidence of lung cancer in particular and other problems increased tremendously, more in women. We, Indians, should learn from others mistakes, steps rather than suffering first and then learning the hard way. Tobacco, Bidi, Cigarette and other tobacco related ads should be banned completely from all the public places. Newspaper and renowned magazine people should have guts to refuse such ads rather than keeping only earning as their goal. Afterall they owe a lot of responsibility to the public at large and infact they can be instrumental in public education against tobacco. All the public places should be made smoke free. I welcome the decision of BJP Government to make Railway "Smoke Free" from June 1, 1999. I hope that it is implemented in its true spirit by one and all. Railway should assign this work also to their task force who till today only check people without valid tickets. All the city and interstate buses should be made smoke free. Thanks to our courts who are really making best efforts to make our environment less polluted by banning substandard vehicle engines which produce lots of pollution. They should also make a law to ban any type of tobacco consumption in public. I am proud to say that our hospital where I am working has been made smoke free in Ahmedabad. Kindly send you opinions. Friends, I always have a quarrel with a person who does not stop smoking in bus or train, after he does not stop smoking after polite 2 to 3 requests of stopping that act. I am sure we all should make this effort to make our India smoke free. Dr. Kiran Kothari Cancer Surgeon
