“Buy a pack of Camels and you will receive access to the lounge bar where the view is better and you will have the possibility to make photos with our models,” said a half-naked lady standing behind a cigarette stand at the entrance to a night club. The party called Urban Wave that took place in Kiev was a Camel cigarette promotion. The thing that the majority of participants didn’t know was that this party is Japan Tobacco’s pseudo-brand.

Using various social medias, as for instance Facebook and drawing popular artist and DJs, JT organizes such parties to attract people towards its brand and to engage with present of future smokers. “The main objective of Urban Wave is to advertise and distribute cigarettes to people at these parties,” stated Andriy Skipalsky, representative of LIFE, an anti-tobacco non-profit organization. Skipalsky stated that this way of dark marketing, although legal, demonstrates how tobacco enterprises try to attract more and more people and namely teenagers.

Tobacco enterprises have a huge history of attracting young people in their marketing activities in order to replace older smokers or those who quit smoking.

A 1975 RJ Reynolds internal company document underlined the importance of attracting young people. “To assure an increased and continuous growth for Camel Filter, the brand should raise its sales among the 14-24 age group, which might represent the future of cigarette business,” it reads. One more RJ Reynolds document states: “Teenagers are unique and the best source of replacement smokers. About 5% of people start smoking after 24.”

Ukraine has already prohibited tobacco advertising on TV, radio and the press as well as other means of advertisement, as billboards. A month ago it became the 40th country in the world to introduce graphic warnings on cigarette packages, which will be adopted on September, 2012.

Despite all these actions, 45% of Ukrainians have observed cigarette marketing in various advertisement or promotions, according to data presented by the 2010 Global Adult Tobacco Survey.

Anti-tobacco organizations and health officials state that more should be done in order to reduce youngster from smoking, by making tobacco products less accessible, by restricting tobacco companies from building relationships with present and future smokers.

A bill in parliament could help to end all this. Approximately 300 of the legislature’s 450 lawmakers stood in favor of the bill in 2010. “The full advertising ban should bring Ukraine in line with the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which was signed in 2001,” stated Natalia Korol, a representative of the WHO in Ukraine.

At the same time, government is not preventing the activity of tobacco companies. JT’s Urban Wave recently held one more party in Kiev.

By Steve Shepherd, Staff Writer. Copyright © 2011 Cigarette-Store.org. All rights reserved.