Tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship ban adoption:A pilot study of the reporting challenges faced by low- and middle-income nations.

INTRODUCTION: The WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) Secretariat has identified issues with Article 13 (Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship) Party policy progress reporting, whilst some researchers remain skeptical of the completeness and accuracy of the data collected as part of the required reporting questionnaire. Gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges encountered when completing these questionnaires could provide insights to improve WHO FCTC progress reporting. METHODS: Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted between January and June 2021, with nine national tobacco control focal point (NFP) individuals (designates who report on WHO FCTC implementation on the Party’s behalf) from low- and middle-income countries. The study analysis used a thematic framework approach involving data familiarization, thematic framework construction, indexing and refining, mapping and interpretation of the results. RESULTS: The analysis generated four themes: 1) use of different resources, 2) presence of compounding complexities, 3) use of supporting mechanisms employed for tackling the challenges, and 4) recommendations for refinements within the questionnaire and for those completing it. CONCLUSIONS: The WHO FCTC reporting questionnaire needs improvements that could be piloted and discussed between the Convention Secretariat and the Parties prior to wide scale implementation

Carlsberg alibi marketing in the UEFA Euro 2016 football finals: implications of Probably inappropriate alcohol advertising

Background: Alcohol advertising is a key driver of alcohol consumption, and is prohibited in France by the Loi Evin. In 2016 the Danish brewer Carlsberg sponsored the UEFA Euro 2016 finals, held in France, and used the alibis ‘Probably’ and ‘…the best in the world’ in place of Carlsberg in pitch-side advertising. We have quantified the advertising exposure achieved during the final seven games in the UEFA Euro 2016 championship. Methods: Appearances of the Carlsberg alibis ‘Probably’ and ‘the best in the world’ were counted and timed to the nearest second during all active play in live coverage of quarter final, semi-final and final matches broadcast in the UK. We used census data and viewing figures from Kantar Media to estimate gross and per capita impressions of these advertisements in the UK population. Results: In 796 minutes, 29 seconds of active play there were 746 alibi appearances, totalling 68 minutes 35 seconds duration and representing 8.6% of active playing time. Appearances were particularly frequent at the end of normal time, extra time and penalties. The seven matches delivered up to 7.43 billion Carlsberg alibi impressions to UK adults and 163.3 million to children. In the only match involving a second country with laws prohibiting alcohol advertising (France versus Iceland), exposure occurred for only 1.8% of playing time. Conclusions: Alibi marketing achieved significant advertising coverage during the final seven EURO 2016 championship games, particularly to children. Since ‘Probably’ is registered by Carlsberg as a wordmark this advertising appears to contravene the Loi Evin, though Carlsberg have defended their marketing actions

Assessment of tobacco imagery and compliance with tobacco-free rules in popular Indian films

Background: Exposure to smoking in films causes smoking uptake among adolescents. Investigation of the extent to which tobacco imagery appears, or tobacco control laws are complied with in Indian films is limited, and especially so for films in regional languages. This study presents an analysis of tobacco content and compliance with tobacco control laws in popular films in several languages from the Karnataka state of India.Methods: We used 5 min interval coding to measure actual tobacco use, implied tobacco use, tobacco paraphernalia and tobacco branding in the top 10 films identified from national box office ratings and regional distributor reports in Karnataka in 2015 and 2016. We also assessed compliance with tobacco-free film rules in India.Findings: A total of 47 films, in English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Tulu languages were coded. Any tobacco imagery was observed in 72% of films, and actual tobacco use in 50%. Tobacco imagery was equally prevalent in films classified as suitable for universal viewing (U category) or at age 12 or more (U/A category) films; and significantly more common in films made in regional than national language (Hindi). None of the films were fully compliant with legal requirements on health spots, audiovisual disclaimers and health warnings.Conclusions: Tobacco content was common in films classified as suitable for viewing by children, more among regional than national languages. Compliance with tobacco control laws was low. Stricter enforcement of tobacco-free film rules will protect children and adolescents from exposure to tobacco use on screen

Encouraging independent thought and learning in first year practical classes

The transition from A-level to degree-level practical classes then to a research project, hence from dependent learner to independent researcher, is a hurdle that all students face when studying for a chemistry degree. This can be daunting so any innovations that aid this transition are of great value. At the University of Reading, the first year practical course has been redesigned to facilitate this transition by embedding independent thought and experimentation across all chemistry disciplines (introductory, organic, inorganic and physical). Examples of experiments that provide opportunities for independent student investigation, along with student perceptions of the experiments of the course, are given. Using this model for practical-class delivery, student engagement, confidence, independence and ultimately preparedness for year 2 were improved

Population exposure to smoking and tobacco branding in the UK reality show Love Island'

Background: Reality television shows are popular with children and young adults; inclusion of tobacco imagery in these programmes is likely to cause smoking in these groups. Series 3 of the UK reality show Love Island, broadcast in 2017, attracted widespread media criticism for high levels of smoking depicted. We have quantified this tobacco content and estimated the UK population exposure to generic and branded tobacco imagery generated by the show. Methods: We used 1-minute interval coding to quantify actual or implied tobacco use, tobacco paraphernalia or branding, in alternate episodes of series 3 of Love Island; and Census data and viewing figures from Kantar Media to estimate gross and per capita tobacco impressions. Results: We coded 21 episodes comprising 1001 minutes of content. Tobacco imagery occurred in 204 (20%) intervals; the frequency of appearances fell significantly after media criticism. An identifiable cigarette brand, Lucky Strike Double Click, appeared in 16 intervals. The 21 episodes delivered an estimated 559 million gross tobacco impressions to the UK population, predominantly to women, including 47 million to children aged <16; and 44 million gross impressions of Lucky Strike branding, including 4 million to children <16. Conclusion: Despite advertising legislation and broadcasting regulations intended to protect children from smoking imagery in UK television, series 3 of Love Island delivered millions of general and branded tobacco impressions both to children and adults in the UK. More stringent controls on tobacco content in television programmes are urgently needed

Dataset for Quantifying and characterising tobacco content in the most in-demand streamed series in 10 low/middle-income Countries in 2019

Data from the quantitative and qualitative coding of streamed series content. Tobacco depictions and their characterisations across 18 series available on streaming services Netflix, Hulu and AmazonVideo from 2019.Any depiction of tobacco was counted and logged by trained coders in accordance with the coding protocol outlined in the associated paper. Demographic information relating to the actors using tobacco was recorded by coders, according to their own judgement. Contextual information about the environment of tobacco use/depiction is also recorded on hard-copy coding sheets. Data was recorded to hard-copy sheets and compiled in SPSS on completion of data collection. SPSS records tobacco depiction data by episode.Data is stored in SPSS. Was analysed in version 22

Framework Index for "Tobacco Control Legislation in Small Island Nations: Adoption of WHO FCTC Article 13 in the Federated States of Micronesia"

Framework index of the current tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship policy (TAPS) environment in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Three research questions underpinned this study: What is the context surrounding the current TAPS policy in FSM? What circumstances led to the development of the current legislative text? And, What is the involvement of the different actors in developing and monitoring the TAPS legislation? A health policy triangle model was used as a conceptual approach on publicly available documents. The thematic framework approach informed the analysis of thirty nine documents. Four themes generated from the analysis: 1) the adoption of TAPS provisions due to international commitments, 2) the limited involvement of sub-national actors, 3) the problematic tobacco control program’s funding and administration and 4) the incomplete documentation of TAPS. This file provides the coded text used for the generated findings, stratified per theme, sub-theme and category. Links to original material are provided in the reference list.We employed the health policy triangle model as a conceptual approach and the READ technique to inform the study procedure. We collected 308 documents from publicly available resources (see online supplementary appendix 1 in the associated paper) with the combination of the keywords “Micronesia” (or “Federated States of Micronesia” or “FSM”) and “tobacco advertising” (or “tobacco marketing” or “tobacco promotion”). We excluded (269 total) documents as irrelevant or with repeat information. We collected data between November-December of 2020 (except the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, 2019 collected in 2022), and no retrospective chronological limitation was set. Thirthy nine documents included for analysis.No changes occured before the analysis. We drew on the thematic framework approach, to inform the study analysis. Categories, themes and sub-themes created based on the available data.All data was coded using NVivo 12.0 software, but the file presented here is in Rich Text Format (RTF)

Framework Index for "Tobacco Control Legislation in Small Island Nations: Adoption of WHO FCTC Article 13 in the Federated States of Micronesia"

Framework index of the current tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship policy (TAPS) environment in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Three research questions underpinned this study: What is the context surrounding the current TAPS policy in FSM? What circumstances led to the development of the current legislative text? And, What is the involvement of the different actors in developing and monitoring the TAPS legislation? A health policy triangle model was used as a conceptual approach on publicly available documents. The thematic framework approach informed the analysis of thirty nine documents. Four themes generated from the analysis: 1) the adoption of TAPS provisions due to international commitments, 2) the limited involvement of sub-national actors, 3) the problematic tobacco control program’s funding and administration and 4) the incomplete documentation of TAPS. This file provides the coded text used for the generated findings, stratified per theme, sub-theme and category. Links to original material are provided in the reference list

Dataset for "Identifying misleading corporate narratives: The application of linguistic and qualitative methods to commercial determinants of health research"

This dataset concerns the language used by Philip Morris international (PMI) in their external communications. The dataset was collected in order to identify patterns in language used in different corporate communications. This dataset includes Annual Reports, Investor reports, Investor day slide decks, transcripts and reports. It is a record of the inductive coding conducted for this project. The dataset contains the final codebook, which was agreed and approved by all coders