BACKGROUND AND IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES: The tobacco industry deliberately targets communities already facing systemic inequities based on age, race, ethnicity, gender, and economic status. These issues are often treated as isolated concerns rather than part of a larger pattern of exploitation. Reframing tobacco industry activities through an Inequity lens helps expose the industry’s role in perpetuating systemic inequities and draws supporters from adjacent movements.
INTERVENTION OR RESPONSE: To address this, STOP undertook a methodical and consultative process to define inequity in the tobacco control context and develop a clear framework for identifying industry practices that exacerbate inequity. Using this framework, we analyzed various industry activities, like the mistreatment of tobacco farmers, the sale of single cigarettes in low-income countries, and the marketing of flavored products to racial and ethnic communities and determined their relationship to inequity. This process guided the development of core campaign messaging and objectives.
The campaign employed targeted content and visuals that included an infographic, a factsheet and blog on single-stick sales in Bangladesh, and more notably, the Tobacco Slave film, which exposes Imperial Brands' predatory contract systems that exploit Malawian farmers.
RESULTS AND IMPACT: Launched in 2023, the campaign has gained traction. The blog received nearly 56.000 views, and social media content achieved 3 million impressions, reaching over 950.000 people on X and Facebook during the promotion period. The Tobacco Slave film and shorts have garnered over 236.000 views to date across YouTube and live screenings in the United States, United Kingdom, Jordan, Brazil, and Kenya—engaging audiences in human rights, labor, and development circles.
CONCLUSIONS: The Campaign applies a novel inequity lens to illustrate how the industry exploits communities facing systemic challenges. While more research is needed to document the industry’s role in perpetuating inequities, this reframing has the potential to enhance advocacy and drive meaningful policy change by aligning tobacco control with broader social justice efforts.