{"id":2964,"date":"2022-03-08T20:20:25","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T01:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/?p=2964"},"modified":"2022-04-27T15:21:05","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T20:21:05","slug":"smoking-prevalence-tobacco-advertising-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/2022\/03\/08\/smoking-prevalence-tobacco-advertising-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"Map of the Week: Smoking Prevalence & Tobacco Advertising Policies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Smoking tobacco has been a major pastime in certain societies all over the world. Whether that be for financial gain or social practice or both, most if not all countries have been affected by the production of cigarettes. As research has expanded, many countries have put bans on the advertising of tobacco products. These bans range from TV, radio and print media and escalate upward. A website named \u201cViews of the World\u201d presents a map that illustrates both smoking prevalence and tobacco advertising policies for the entire world. This site is run by a geographer named Benjamin Hennig, and his maps \u201cinvestigate social and spatial inequalities, humanity\u2019s impact on Earth, global sustainability and the development of concepts for analyzing, visualizing and mapping these issues.\u201d This particular map of Hennig\u2019s makes a provocative comparison on tobacco use and tobacco advertising. Creating this view is both informative and critical because it gives us an insight into how other countries deal with tobacco advertising, and the impacts that these variables have on the popularity of tobacco in the world.
\nWhen initially looking at this map, it is easy to see that most countries have some sort of ban on tobacco advertising. For the United States, there is no ban whatsoever on any advertising. This is interesting because they are also not near the high percentage of smoking prevalence compared to other countries. The author might be implying that the US has a strong health communication system and that citizens had been made properly aware that the use of tobacco and smoking cigarettes is not healthy. It would seem likely that with this scientific information and study that the United States would put some sort of ban in place, but they do not, which is likely due to the fact that it is a key part of the nation\u2019s economy. Without these products in circulation, the United States would lose a lot of money and global power.
\nOn the other hand, the highest percentages of smoking prevalence seem to be in Europe and parts of Asia, where there are a lot of strict bans on advertising. Russia, which traverses Europe and Asia, is a compelling example where there is a complete ban on advertising, but the rates of smoking tobacco are extremely high. This particular fact is not highlighted or exaggerated in the map, which keeps the continuity of the entire illustration. Asia is one of the leading growers of tobacco , which might be an explanation for the high use. However, this particular map does not show when these bans were put in place, but they might have been a result of the high percentage of smokers. Hennig might have used this as a tactic to persuade map audiences that advertising might not have an effect on the percentage of the population that smokes. Creating this structure in the map might have also crowded the map and potentially loses the main argument. If these details were put in, the map might not be as interesting because it could provide a possible argument.
\nIn the continent of Africa, there is varying information. There are several countries that have low numbers in this area, which might act as a counter argument to the United States. With this data, Hennig might be showing that it does not matter what bans you have on advertising, and that countries with more access to these drugs will have higher percentages. South Sudan does not have any data reported for their smoking prevalence, which is intriguing because according to The Tobacco Atlas, \u201cmore than 6000 children (10-14) years old and 533000 adults (15+ years old) continue to use tobacco each day.\u201d Either Hennig did not research this area heavily enough or he purposely left it out to disregard the problem that is ongoing in South Sudan. Leaving out critical information about a country that has an obvious problem with tobacco is vital when analyzing this map.
\nThis map provides very important information about the current state of the world regarding tobacco use and advertisement. Rhetorically speaking this map could tweak some things to provide a more inclusive picture, and talk about certain facts pertaining to countries with particular problems . These \u201csilences\u201d speak volumes for certain countries, where there needs to be changes and reforms. While some countries have no bans in place for advertising tobacco products, there are several warnings on packages that strongly don\u2019t suggest the use of them. For others, it gives us an insight to the inner workings of governments such as the United States, and their lackluster regulation of this drug due to its importance in the economy. I believe this map and organization provided the audience with clear and concise data, like most maps do. These comparisons help us spatialize activities like tobacco use for us to appreciate the comparisons.<\/p>\n

Works Cited:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hennig, B., 2019. Smoke and mirrors: Smoking Prevalence and Tobacco Advertising Policies. [online] Views of the World. Available at: <https:\/\/www.viewsoftheworld.net\/?p=5721> [Accessed 9 March 2022].<\/p>\n

Hennig, B., n.d. About m. [online] Views of the World. Available at: <https:\/\/www.viewsoftheworld.net\/?page_id=631> [Accessed 9 March 2022].<\/p>\n

Shahbandeh, M., 2022. World tobacco production by country | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: <https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/261173\/leading-countries-in-tobacco-production\/> [Accessed 9 March 2022].<\/p>\n

Tobacco Atlas. 2022. South Sudan – Tobacco Atlas. [online] Available at: <https:\/\/tobaccoatlas.org\/country\/south-sudan\/> [Accessed 9 March 2022].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smoking tobacco has been a major pastime in certain societies all over the world. Whether that be for financial gain or social practice or both, most if not all countries have been affected by the production of cigarettes. As research … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21024],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maps-of-the-week"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2964"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3161,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964\/revisions\/3161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}