Toxic politics of selling addiction to children

Shobha Shukla / Bobby Ramakant *

The same deceptive tricks and tactics are used by industries that profit from getting our children addicted to ultra-processed foods, high sugar products, tobacco and nicotine. Experts from the United Nations health agency – the World Health Organization (WHO) and Corporate Accountability, call for concerted efforts from the governments to put people before profit, and hold industries that do the reverse (prioritise profit over health) accountable.

Through the use of artificial flavours, excessive sugar, colourful packaging, character branding, catchy advertising, and digital marketing campaigns, these products exploit children’s developmental impressionability and normalise harmful consumption patterns at an early age, making them lifelong consumers of harmful products.

“Industries that profit from harmful products - such as ultra-processed foods, sugary snacks, tobacco, and nicotine - have strategically designed and marketed these products to target children and adolescents. Through addictive ingredients, colourful packaging, and digital campaigns, they exploit children’s impressionability, creating lifelong consumers of harmful products. This deliberate manipulation is a result of weak policies, permissive governance, and corporate greed that prioritize profit over health. We must challenge these harmful dynamics by dismantling industry influence and advocating for bold, equity-driven policies that protect public health, especially the well-being of future generations,” said Ashka Naik, Chief Research and Policy Officer at Corporate Accountability.

Is it accidental or by design?

This is not accidental, but it is a result of well-orchestrated and fine-tuned tactics by the industry to maximise profits at any cost. It is a result of deliberate manipulation of addiction, coupled with permissive policy environments and weak global governance, that relies on privileging profit for the few over the health of many.

From point-of-sale strategies to influencer partnerships, these pernicious industry strategies are symptoms of a deeper issue- a toxic political environment where regulatory loopholes, corporate lobbying, conflicts of interest, and corporate electioneering allow harmful industries to operate with impunity.

Sugar-laden ultra-processed products, flavoured nicotine, and other addictive substances proven to cause disease and death, continue to retain their social license to remain part of everyday childhood experiences. This is a blatant failure of national governments and global institutions to protect the health and rights of young people from all forms of corporate capture.

"These industries that hook our children to addictions have co-opted the political agenda and transformed their tactics so that they can not only keep profiting from a product that causes death but also get away with causing harm and lying," said Daniel Dorado, Tobacco Campaign Director of Corporate Accountability. Daniel has made seminal contribution in amplifying the demand to hold tobacco industry legally and financially liable for the harm it has caused historically.

The evidence is clear. Organisations like WHO Americas regional office (Pan American Health Organization - PAHO) and UNICEF have strongly recommended restricting the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children across the Americas.

Industries profiting from addictions use same playbook

“Tobacco and ultra-processed food industries follow a playbook designed not to protect public health, but to protect profit. They shape public perception, influence policymaking, and push back against regulation — all while their products drive addiction and disease. From stadiums to screens, the normalisation of harm is visible everywhere, while responsibility is quietly denied,” said Jaime Arcila.

Jaime has been a fierce corporate accountability activist since over 15 years now. Based in Colombia, he serves as Senior Researcher, Tobacco Campaign, Corporate Accountability. Jaime has also been honoured with a certification from School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

Jaime shares that in Colombia, soccer sport has a huge connect with the people, especially the young. Tobacco industry colluded to sponsor soccer for 20 years till Colombia banned tobacco sponsorship, advertising and promotion of sports in 2009. When tobacco industry could not sponsor soccer, ultra-processed food industry seized the opportunity to hook the young to its products. Same tricks and tactics are used by these abusive industries that hook the young to unhealthy and deadly products so that they can make more profits.

Agrees Javier Zúñiga, Legal Coordinator, El Poder del Consumidor-México: “In Mexico, food and beverage advertising targeted at children is not just pervasive - it is manipulative. These marketing strategies are designed to shape children's preferences, influence their purchase requests, and alter their long-term eating habits. Through entertainment, emotional appeal, and repetition across media platforms - from billboards and digital ads to influencer content - these campaigns build brand loyalty by exploiting children's inexperience and lack of understanding about persuasive intent.”

Tobacco is engineered to be deadly, addictive, and difficult to quit

“Cigarettes are not a cultural tradition — they are an industrial addiction, engineered to be deadly and difficult to quit. Colombia’s history, where cigarette brands once sponsored football, shows how deeply these industries embed themselves in our lives. Now, others are taking their place, using the same tactics to target the next generation,” Jaime added. “But this is a turning point. Article 5.3 of the global tobacco treaty (formally called the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control or WHO FCTC) is clear: public health must come before industry influence. Yet the FCTC is under pressure, and we must act to protect it. Governments have the tools - and the responsibility - to hold these industries accountable.”

20 years of global tobacco treaty

The year 2025 marks 20 years since the global tobacco treaty came into effect. FCTC is WHO’s first legally binding corporate accountability and public health treaty. 182 countries and the European Union have ratified it so far.

With the upcoming World No Tobacco Day on 31st May 2025 and World Conference on Tobacco Control 2025, Dr Kerstin Schotte, Medical Officer at the WHO headquarters’ Department for Health Promotion, calls for urgent action to save lives from tobacco and nicotine.

Every four seconds, someone dies due to tobacco use or exposure to second-hand smoke. Globally, over 8 million die of tobacco use every year (out of which, one million die due to exposure to second-hand smoke). Behind the brightly packaged products and flavoured variants lies a clear strategy: to hook the next generation on addiction. Today, an estimated 37 million children aged 13 to 15 years are using tobacco - a figure that reflects targeted marketing, not informed choice.

Over 8 million reasons every year to save lives and hold tobacco industry accountable

Every tobacco-related life-threatening disease and death is preventable, says Dr Tara Singh Bam, Board Director of Asia Pacific Cities Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT) and Asia Pacific Director (Tobacco Control), Vital Strategies.

“If governments fully implement the global tobacco treaty lifesaving provisions and other evidence-based measures of the WHO, we can save 8 million lives that we lose every year to tobacco. Even one tobacco-related death is a death too many,” says Dr Bam.

Industry is well aware that tobacco and nicotine products are highly addictive. Once hooked, people struggle to get rid of the addiction (and end up filling the bank coffers of the industry).

Governments have the tools to act: banning flavours and filters, implementing plain packaging, prohibiting advertising and promotion - especially on digital platforms - and creating tobacco- and nicotine-free environments.

Evidence shows that these measures work. They reduce the appeal of tobacco products, protect people’s health, and save lives. Supporting cessation services and increasing taxes further strengthens our collective response.

“On this World No Tobacco Day, we call on governments to unmask the industry’s tactics and accelerate action,” said Dr Schotte. “We have to fight tobacco industry because they prioritise profit over health. This is exactly the opposite of what WHO does. We want to protect health for all.”

Industry uses flavours for tobacco products because it hooks the young!

With drop in tobacco use globally, industry is panicking and conniving to come up with addictive products that can deceive our children and young and hook them as users. “Shameless manipulation (by the industry) that target kids for profit,” says Dr Schotte of WHO.

Evidence shows that the biggest reason why young people get hooked to deadly tobacco (or other forms of tobacco products like e-cigarettes) is flavour. Flavours in tobacco products mask harshness and improve palatability – while tobacco remains as deadly as ever.

"E-cigarettes come today in more than 16,000 flavours and the majority of these flavours are particularly (and deceptively) targeted at youth. We know from research that the main reason why young people start using these (deadly) products is because of the flavours,” said Dr Kerstin Schotte.

WHO, as well as the global tobacco treaty (FCTC), calls upon governments to ban the use of flavours in tobacco products. When flavours were banned in e-cigarettes in Massachusetts, USA, sales dropped by 80%.

“Shisha (or water pipe or hookah) is not less dangerous than cigarettes. Some people (wrongly) think that because the vapour from the hookah pipes comes through water, it makes it less dangerous, but it is not the case,” Scotte added.

Filters do not make tobacco any less deadly but helps hook users

“One major deception strategy of the tobacco industry has been to promote filters as a so-called ‘safer alternative’ to unfiltered cigarettes. And that has been a lie, that for more than decades has been told by the cigarette manufacturers. While in fact the research shows that filtered cigarettes are not less harmful than non-filtered cigarettes. In fact, filters make it easier for cigarette smokers to start because it is less harsh in your throat,” explains Schotte.

"Also, filters make it harder to quit. In addition, we know that filters have contributed to the rise in aggressive types of lung cancer, which are sometimes deeper in the lungs and harder to detect. So instead of being harmless, filters are making a bigger negative health impact. That is why the WHO is suggesting governments to ban filters, not only because of the health effects, but also because these filters pose incredible environmental damage as they are made of plastic,” said Dr Schotte. Cigarette butts are considered the most widespread man-made pollutant in the world, including in oceans. They are non-biodegradable and most abundant form of plastic waste, with about 4.5 trillion butts polluting the environment annually.

In democracy, hope lies in people power

Jaime finds hope that in democracies, people's power will be catalytic to hold these abusive industries to account. For example, civil society movement had forced world's biggest tobacco company (Philip Morris) to be ejected out of its association with Canadian government to 'make COVID-19' vaccines.

These experts were speaking in a special session hosted in lead up to World No Tobacco Day and around 78th World Health Assembly of the WHO.

#EndTobacco is not only an urgent public health imperative but also a human rights one. Let us hope that governments walk the talk on promises of health for all and SDGs and put people before profit.