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ASH Daily News
7 December 2001


HEADLINES


WHO to target sports in 2002
Scientists hopeful for lung cancer cure by 2010
More coverage of ICM Poll
Creative thinkers outmanoeuvre multinational


FULL TEXT


WHO to target sports in 2002

Following developments at the recent negotiations on the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), PR Week predicts that the biggest sports events of the calendar in 2002 would be the focus of a major PR campaign against tobacco advertising and sponsorship.

At the negotiations in Geneva, which were attended by the 191 member countries of the WHO, the Tobacco-Free Sports campaign was launched which aims to create a global policy to ban all promotion, advertising and sponsorship involving tobacco. So far, some of sports most influential bodies have signed up to the Tobacco Free Sport campaign, including the international Olympic Committee, Formula 1’s governing body FIA, and the football body FIFA.

The campaign is to start in February at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake. Next years football World Cup, organised by FIFA, will also be tobacco free and FIA hopes F1 to be free of tobacco sponsorship by 2006.

WHO information officer Reshma Prakash said: “We need to gain international coverage and using these sporting events will significantly help that. We are anticipating a lot of media enquiries around the Winter Olympics.”

The need for an international consensus on removing tobacco influence from sporting events, say the WHO, arises because voluntary codes on advertising, in place in the UK, US and other countries, do not work.

A spokesman for BAT, referring to a recently contrived attempt with other tobacco companies to stave off international pressure said: “We believe our [new] marketing standards are a step in the right direction.”

Source: PR Week, 7 December 2001


Scientists hopeful for lung cancer cure by 2010

Scientists have announced that by 2004 they would have isolated the key genes which would allow them to develop targeted drugs for lung cancer within six years of that.

Experts at the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation welcomed the announcement.

Source: The Sun, 7 December 2001



More coverage of ICM Poll

The ICM poll commissioned by ASH received more coverage in the press, this time being mentioned in Campaign and The Sun newspaper.

The key finding of the survey was that almost half of smokers thought smoking couldn’t be all that dangerous otherwise the Government would not allow it to be advertised.

Source: Campaign, The Sun, 7 December 2001



Creative thinkers outmanoeuvre multinational

VeriSign, a digital trusts company is boosting its presence by expanding into Europe. The company is to open offices in France, Norway, Sweden and Denmark to promote its new brand management services.

According to the company, of the top 25 US brands, less than half owned their URLs – tobacco giant Philip Morris, for example doesn’t own Marlboro.com and Pepsi.org belongs to a group calling themselves “Public Existentialist Programs for Surrealist Imaginations.”

VeriSign said that it wants to help companies protect, understand and promote their online global identity.

Source: New Media Age, 6 December 2001



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