"The true cost of tobacco for everyone": ACT launches its campaign

The Alliance Against Tobacco (ACT) held a press conference on December 9. The federation of anti-smoking associations in France is launching its "The True Cost of Tobacco for All" campaign to inform and raise public awareness about the true cost of the tobacco industry.

This campaign is part of a more general denormalization program led by the Alliance, aimed at denormalizing the perception of tobacco consumption and that of its industry.

Educational work to advance regulations

Loïc Josseran, President, and Marion Catellin, Director of ACT, emphasized the importance of this campaign in deconstructing a number of preconceived notions about tobacco, deliberately disseminated and maintained by the tobacco industry. This educational work is particularly essential in the fight against smoking: the persistence of misinformation about tobacco has been identified as one of the obstacles to the implementation of effective and proven measures, such as increasing tobacco taxes.

The fight against tobacco “concerns us all”

One of the ACT's objectives is to propose a renewed approach to the issue of tobacco, by providing factual and entertaining information, in order to show that the fight against smoking is a public health issue that concerns all citizens and the community. In particular, the Alliance pointed out that the net social cost of smoking is estimated in France at 120 billion euros per year, representing 1,800 euros per person annually, while the tobacco industry seeks to minimize its financial contribution to the community through tax optimization practices. [1].

Perception of smoking in a few figures

The ACT called upon the BVA polling institute to establish an indicator to assess the social perception of smoking in France. The surveys conducted by BVA show that, while smoking is associated with a negative image (83% of French people consider tobacco to be an addiction, and only 17% as a freedom), the institute shows that cigarette companies are still strongly perceived as an industry like any other. Furthermore, a number of preconceived ideas remain anchored in collective representations. For example, 71% of smokers wrongly believe that exercising helps clear their lungs. Similarly, 56% of French people believe that the sale of tobacco products brings more to the community than it costs in healthcare. But according to Pierre Kopp, a health economist who has worked on assessing the cost of drugs in France, tobacco costs the state budget 14 billion net, more than the budget of the Ministry of Culture.

BVA's work also aims to directly evaluate the effectiveness of the information and denormalization campaign undertaken by the Alliance Against Tobacco. These surveys will make it possible to establish in real time the effectiveness of the Alliance's denormalization campaign.

Keywords: ACT, Alliance Against Tobacco, cost of tobacco, campaign