BACKGROUND: Sri Lanka has a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertisements and promotions from 2006. However, direct and indirect promotion happens throughout the media platforms. This study aimed to profile the individuals in entertainment industry engaged in these acts to identify common attributes to develop effective control measures.
METHODS: Key informant interviews and review of media content identified individuals to be profiled. The operational definition used was “individual linked to entertainment industry advertising tobacco as defined in the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol Act”.
RESULTS: Thirty-four profiles emerged in television, cinema, social media and music video categories. Tobacco promotion behavior was in two main themes, smoking-on-screen and directors/producers/scriptwriters. The content themes included product and brand promotion, normalization and glamorization of smoking and promotion of smoking among women. Clustering of the same set of individuals was conspicuous across the entertainment platforms.
Of the 23 individuals who smoked on screen, 17 were men and six were women. A few claimed not to smoke off-screen, while majority portrayed smoking in their social media profiles. Two had a history of positive engagement in tobacco control. All had received awards of popularity or talent. Age ranged between 25 to 65 years. The majority engaged in active politics, clustering in a single political camp.
Of the 11 directors/producers/script writers, 10 were men and the only female producer belonged to a television channel. The majority were tobacco users themselves. Most had their own creative or public relations agencies or were employed in those. Two of those agencies mentioned Ceylon Tobacco Company (the BAT subsidiary) as a client. None declared of receiving any sponsorship from tobacco industry. Three were strong political activists belonging to two political camps.
CONCLUSIONS: Personal use and affiliation to certain political and industrial clusters potentially make individuals in the entertainment industry vulnerable to violate tobacco advertising laws.