TOBACCO USE BY NIGERIA YOUTHS AND SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

One of the major public health challenge of this century is finding a way to harness the powerful influence of the media to curtail tobacco use. Tobacco companies are faced with so many restrictions today, however they keep trying to figure new ways to stay ahead of the curve so as to survive. The main issue with tobacco is that about fifty percent of its long-term users die from tobacco-related diseases. To hook a new generation into addiction, tobacco companies has to try every advertising and marketing trick in its playbook. For years, the tobacco industry fought the regulators who slowly and belatedly restricted the places and ways it could advertise and market its products. Then came the internet, which was a dream come true for the tobacco industry. Some tobacco companies began using internet platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to bypass advertising bans. They began paying social media influencers to promote traditional tobacco products as well as e-cigarettes online.

Tobacco use is the single most important cause of preventable and premature death globally. The World Health Organization estimates that tobacco kills nearly seven million people annually (Oyewole, Animasahun & Chapman, 2018). Nigeria has made progress on tobacco control in recent years. However, people continue to die and become sick needlessly, and the costs to society from tobacco use continue to mount.  Nigeria can still do more to make the proven tobacco control tools work for its citizens’ wellbeing. It has observed that tobacco is a very common and easily accessible drug in Nigeria. Adolescents buy and consume this product without little or no constraints. Early initiation of tobacco use is associated with higher levels of Nicotine dependence and serious health outcomes. Adolescents who start smoking tobacco at a young age may face the immediate and long-term health problems associated with its use such as asthma, cancers, cardiovascular diseases etc. Social media campaigns have proven effective in reducing tobacco use among young people. It also helps to save billions of dollars annually in tobacco-related costs across the world.

Figure 1: An elderly man smoking tobacco in Nigeria

Although economic costs of smoking in Nigeria are not known, the total economic cost of smoking globally amounts to 2 trillion dollars, when adjusted for 2016 purchasing power parity (PPP). This includes direct costs related to healthcare expenditures and indirect costs related to lost productivity due to early mortality and morbidity. Tobacco harms the health, the treasury, and the spirit of Nigeria. Every year, more than 16,100 of its people are killed by tobacco-caused disease. Still, more than 25,000 children (10-14 years old) and 7,488,000 adults (15+ years old) continue to use tobacco each day in Nigeria. Complacency in the face of the tobacco epidemic insulates the tobacco industry in Nigeria and ensures that tobacco's death toll will grow every year hence the need to promote mass campaign against tobacco use.

Policy on Marketing Tobacco on Social Media

To reduce tobacco use by Nigeria Youths, the following policy is proposed;

1.     Creating laws that prohibits any form of promotions and advertisement of tobacco

2.     Using celebrities and Influencers to promote social media campaigns against tobacco use

3.     Creating anti-smoking campaign on all media forms

4.     Create a support system that helps people quit tobacco

The Need for A Large Scale Media Campaign

The Food and Drug Administration started an anti-smoking campaign called “The Real Cost,” which initially targeted cigarette use by youth 12-17 years old in the United States of America. Since then, the successful campaign has run on TV, radio, print, web and social media and has expanded to chewing tobacco and e-cigarette prevention. An analysis of these ads estimated that in two years, their efforts saved $31 billion in smoking-related costs for youth, their families and society overall (FDA, 2018). The Real Cost Campaign prevented between 380,000 and 587,000 teens from starting to smoke. This study demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of anti-smoking public health campaigns, returning savings of $128 for every dollar invested (Jenssen, 2018).

In a tobacco use study, researchers looked to expand on recent studies investigating connections between social media use in young adults and behavioral changes. Participants in the social media group were 205% as likely to quit smoking, and 214% more likely to be able to remain smoke-free over a period of 30 days (Baskerville, et al., 2015). Interventions using social media represent a promising strategy to deliver evidence-based treatment for smoking to young adults. Social media is extremely popular among young adults and can be harnessed to influence a broad range of health behaviors including smoking cessation (Cao, et al., 2017; Pagoto, et al., 2016; Elaheebocus, et al., 2018). Previous evaluations using social media to change health risk behaviors have shown feasibility as measured by participants’ engagement and satisfaction and short-term efficacy, especially in the area of smoking cessation. Hence social media can help reduce tobacco use among young people around the world today (Ramo, et al., 2019).

Implications of Both Action and Inaction

The passage of a bill to ban direct and indirect marketing of tobacco on social media in Nigeria will have huge positive implications on the health of Nigerians. It means there will be reduction in tobacco-related diseases in Nigeria. It is believed that this policy alongside other tobacco control measures will improve population health and well-being, and could save as much as 16,000 lives annually. Today, as media have expanded beyond traditional channels such as newspapers, magazines, radio, and television to the Internet and interactive video gaming—the challenge is even more urgent. Tobacco control agencies in Nigeria should be using social media to positively influence the attitudes and behavior of the young people towards tobacco use in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND RESEARCH ON TOBACCO USE BY NIGERIA YOUTHS AND SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Tobacco remains the biggest public health threat, killing more than seven million people globally every year. Tobacco use is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and has been on the rise in Nigeria (Oladepo, Oluwasanu & Abiona, 2018). According to the 2012 Global Adult Tobacco Survey, 5.6% (4.7 million) Nigerian adults aged 15 years or older currently used tobacco products (10.0% of men and 1.1% of women). Furthermore, 3.7% of Nigerians currently smoke tobacco and 2.9% were daily smokers (Federal Ministry of Health, 2012). Moreover, the potential for the number of Nigerian smokers to rapidly increase is significant: the prevalence of smoking experimentation from a nationally representative survey conducted among in-school Nigerian adolescents aged 13–15 years old ranged from 3.6 to 16.2%. Nigeria is a key tobacco industry market in Africa because of its population size and access to other markets in the region. (Oladepo, Oluwasanu & Abiona, 2018).

Figure 2: Rate of Tobacco Smoking in Nigeria

Many social media sites do little to stop the promotion of tobacco to individuals on their platforms. Facebook and Instagram for example ban paid advertisements for tobacco and e-cigarettes on both platforms. However, the policy does not extend to content posted by social media influencers – a loophole that tobacco companies have and will continue to abuse (Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 2020). New York Times (2018) investigated Big Tobacco’s social media and Instagram influences. The paper found 123 hashtags associated with companies’ tobacco products, which had been viewed over 25 billion times. This indicated that the industry found a “really effective way” to get around existing laws to restrict advertising to young people. Research by Klear noted that 96% of all brands have incorporated social media into their influencer strategy and that global influencer marketing activity increased by 48% in 2019 (Rowell, 2020).

Asare, et al. (2019) noted that population growth in the African region is set to outpace the rate of decline in smoking prevalence, leading to a projected increase in the total number of smokers. As most tobacco users initiate during their adolescent years, tobacco prevention strategies targeting youth will be particularly important hence the need to use social media. A systematic review revealed that youths beliefs about the likelihood of addiction, health risks, and consequences of smoking are associated with future smoking behavior (Aryal, Petzold & Krettek, 2013; Lasebikan, Ola & Lasebikan, 2019). 

National Tobacco Control Act and Its Role on Tobacco Use in Nigeria

Major strides towards national tobacco control have been made since Nigeria became signatory to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in June 2004. The National Tobacco Control Act in Nigeria regulates all aspects of tobacco control including smoke free places, tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship, tobacco packaging and labeling, prevention of tobacco industry interference, tobacco product disclosures, the creation of a National Tobacco Control Committee, tobacco product sales, including prohibiting the sale of single sticks, among other areas. The sale of tobacco products is prohibited to persons under the age of 18. The law prohibits the sale of tobacco products via the internet however Tobacco companies have found a way to use social media influencers to promote tobacco use. The retail sale of e-cigarettes is also allowed. There are no restrictions on the use; advertising, promotion and sponsorship; or packaging and labeling of e-cigarettes (Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 2020).

While the National Tobacco Control Regulations, 2019 continue to enforce implementation on tobacco advertising, it hasn’t effectively implemented many provisions of the Act including smoke free places, promotion, and sponsorship, prevention of tobacco industry interference, among others.

The implementation of the policy on tobacco in Nigeria is moving so slowly due a wide range of problematic clauses. In particular, the act includes the unprecedented requirement that regulations prepared by the federal ministry of health must be approved by the National Assembly. This additional step slows down the process and creates an opportunity for the tobacco industry to block progress. The law also requires the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, a body that regulates products, to issue guidelines for regulating tobacco products however the tobacco industry dominates its processes. For example, tobacco industry representatives outnumber those from other agencies on the committee that writes the guidelines. These situations represent clear conflicts of interest and violate Article 5.3 of the WHO’s framework which commits parties to insulate public health policy making process from the tobacco industry’s interference (World Health Organization, 2019). Another problem with these guidelines is that they only cover cigarettes at present, not all tobacco products. This leaves snuff, hookah, pipe, and e-cigarettes without any regulatory guidelines (Egbe, Glantz, & Bialous, 2020).

Role of Tobacco Social Media Marketing Policy and Large Scale Media Campaign on Tobacco Use

Introducing a policy that penalizes the advertisement and promotion of tobacco online either through paid advertisements or through social media influencers is really important today. Tobacco companies promote their products on social media because they know it is the gateway to young people all over the world. Indeed, the tobacco industry's entire business model depends on addicting the next generation of tobacco users to its products. While TV and magazine tobacco ads have long been banned, there is no clearly written law that stops tobacco or e-cigarette marketing on digital media in Nigeria today.

Social media companies simply create their own policies to monitor it. But tobacco companies are effectively circumventing those policies. An analysis by Tobacco-Free Kids (2020) compiled examples of posts viewed more than 100 million times that showed social media "ambassadors" promoting cigarettes and tobacco-related products in lifestyle postings that are considered far more effective than traditional ads (Cerullo, 2019).

It is also important to note that promoting an anti-tobacco campaign on a large scale could significantly reduce a large number of adolescents from using tobacco. It could also positively influence in smoking-related costs for youth, their families and society overall. Furthermore, the policy would be easy to implement as it involves making laws that specifically reduce tobacco marketing on social media. The policy would require less than $10 million that could end up saving billions of dollars on the long run. It would also be widely supported by Nigerians.

Pros And Cons of Tobacco Social Media Marketing Policy and Large Scale Media Campaign

It would be easy to create laws that prohibits any form of promotions and advertisement of tobacco however it would be easy to difficult to implement compliance to these laws. 

1.     Using celebrities and influencers to promote social media campaigns against tobacco use would help reach a wide range of youths which could in turn lead to behavioral changes. However it could be difficult to ensure that these influencers and celebrities would not themselves use tobacco, hence setting the whole campaign backwards if it becomes breaking news.

2.     It is important to create an anti-smoking campaign on all media forms in a language that would be easy for the intended group to understand. It is important to note that a good number of tobacco users are illiterate, hence created campaigns should be done to cater for a wide range of individuals.

Limitations and Recommendations

One limitation to mass media campaign on tobacco use is funding. The government needs to address is the fact that tobacco control in Nigeria is massively underfunded. The government should take responsibility for the lives of its people and adequately fund tobacco control activities. The government need to set aside funds to reduce the use of Tobacco in Nigeria as the returns on the long run are greater than the tax gained from tobacco companies. The government can ensure they work with various international donor agencies in achieving this aim.

Huge fines should be placed on tobacco companies, social networking sites, celebrities, influencers and individuals who defaults on the promotion and marketing of tobacco online.

1.     To create laws that prohibits any form of promotions and advertisement of tobacco – The lawmakers should work with various stakeholders so as to effectively enact the laws. A committee should also be created that monitors compliance to this law. 

2.     For social media campaigns against tobacco use – The federal ministry of health should work with relevant agencies, NGOs, Public health educators, celebrities, social media influencers among others in creating a campaign that helps to positively change knowledge, attitude and behavior of young Nigerians towards tobacco use.

3.     Media communications play a key role in shaping tobacco-related knowledge, opinions, attitudes, and behaviors among individuals and within communities. Media communications on tobacco include brand-specific advertising and promotion, news coverage, depictions of tobacco use and tobacco products in entertainment media, public relations, corporate sponsorship, corporate advertising and media campaigns for tobacco control.

4.     The total weight of evidence from multiple types of studies, conducted by investigators from different disciplines, and using data from many countries— demonstrates a causal relationship between tobacco advertising and promotion and increased tobacco use.

References

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HOW TO REFERENCE THIS ARTICLE

Ademola, V. D (2022). Tobacco Use By Nigeria Youths And Social Media Marketing. Retrieved from https://www.youdread.com/2022/11/tobacco-use-by-nigeria-youths-and.html