Usual suspects support ban
Germany is one of a dwindling number of developed countries where tobacco can still be displayed openly at points of sale.
Sixty-nine percent of Germans are in favor of a ban on tobacco advertising, according to a Xinhua News Agency story citing the results of a survey conducted by the German opinion research institute Forsa and published yesterday.
Out of 1,003 respondents, 27 percent were opposed to a ban on tobacco advertisements.
Banning alcohol advertising was supported by 58 percent of respondents and opposed by 36 percent.
Tobacco advertising has been banned from radio, television, newspapers and magazines since 2016.
But politicians from the governing conservative CDU/CSU alliance and those from its coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party, are planning to extend the ban.
Opposition to banning tobacco advertisements has come from some German politicians and the tobacco industry.
Several politicians, such as former CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Volker Kauder wants to limit the scope of the ban.
In November, the German Cigarette Association (DZV) argued that tobacco advertising would not ‘lead to more people starting smoking or fewer consumers give up smoking’.
But it warned that a ban on tobacco advertising would have a ‘significant signal effect and would cause domino effects’ in other sectors, such as alcohol, spirits or food. ‘Commercial communication for a legally manufactured and distributed product would be switched off’ for the first time in Germany, it added.
Official 2017 figures from the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) showed that 22.4 percent of German citizens smoked regularly or occasionally, while 77.6 percent had never smoked or had quit.