BACKGROUND AND IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES: The Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act 2005 banned all kinds of tobacco advertisement and promotions including smoking scene in the TV and film/cinema. Implementation of this section of law is being overlooked as authorized officers of TC law don’t monitor these media (TV, Film and OTT). ‘Toofan’ released in 2024 and ‘Jongli’ to be released in 2025. Both films published promotional posters in June 2024 with cigarettes in attrractive look. Shakib Khan, a prominent hero in Toofan, and promising hero Siam in Jongly appeared with cigarettes in their lips, a clear violation of current law.
INTERVENTION OR RESPONSE: Stop Tobacco Bangladesh (STB), a well-known anti-tobacco digital platform among young people shared post on TC law violation in these two films (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=775964474732500&set=a.505028191826131) and called for action against this violation. This post received 2.9 million impressions and reached 1.53 million users, and 123k users interacted on STB Facebook page alone. With the evidence of law and promotional posters of Toofan and Jongly, STB encouraged journalists to highlight this violation in mainstream media. About 50 news published/aired in the national daily newspapers, online news-portals, and TV channels in September 2024 including Deshi Blitz, Barnabee News, and Somoy TV. These media outlets shared this news in the print and online versions and aired TV and YouTube channels that received attention from policy makers as well.
RESULTS AND IMPACT: Both Toofan and Jongly films removed their promotional posters in which the heroes appeared with smoking. Toofan reduced smoking scenes before it released on OTT. Jongly reduce smoking scenes from the film, demonstrated health warnings as per law during the smoking scenes and published new promotional posters without smoking scenes.
CONCLUSIONS: STB social media successfully addresses the TC law violation in two films. These examples would be useful to ensure law is being complied in future by other films.