Merkel supports ad ban

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed support for a ban on tobacco advertising, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.

“If it were up to me, we should ban the advertising of tobacco products,” she was quoted as saying during a question-and-answer session in the Bundestag, the German federal parliament.

The German government had wanted to adopt an advertising ban for tobacco products on billboards and in cinemas from 2020, but the bill failed due to opposition from the CDU-CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag.

A recent poll conducted by the German opinion research institute Forsa found that 69 percent of Germans were in favor of a complete ban on tobacco advertising.