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The Communication Initiative

After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. 

Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future. 

On the transfer, co-founder Victoria Martin expressed her pleasure to see this work continue under Wits' leadership, knowing that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction. 

As Wits, we honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades and look forward building from that strong base. This includes co-founders Warren Feek (1953-2024) and Victoria Martin as well as La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA), which continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com with links to The CI Global site. We are also eager to forge new partnerships and entertain new ideas as we consider how best to contribute to social and behaviour change in our rapidly evolving environment.

If you are joining the International Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit in Panama, please join Wits and CILA on Monday, 22 June, to share your thoughts and suggestion for the relaunch of the Communication Initiative. We will be in Pacifica 5 from 12-1:25 for the Refuel, Reflect, and Renew Lunch Series: The Communication Initiative: celebrating a driving force for Communication for Social Change and the way forward. We will reflect on the legacy of Warren Feek and family in creating the Communication Initiative, consider the contributions of CI over the years and then turn our attention towards the future in this dynamic session. 

If you are unable to join us in Panama, we still want to hear from you. Please contribute your thoughts by following this link: https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026 or reaching out to ci_surveys@commint.com. 

You can also follow the QR Code:

 https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026

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Tobacco in Movies and Impact on Youth

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Author

Affiliation
Burning Brain Society
Summary

This 16-slide presentation, delivered at the July 2006 World Conference on Tobacco or Health (Washington, DC, USA), explores some research on tobacco in movies that was undertaken by the India-based Burning Brain Society (BBS). BBS Chairperson Hemant Goswami traces trends in the degree to which, and the way in which, tobacco use is depicted in the film medium in India. His insights are offered in the context of a 2004 advertising ban imposed by the Indian Government.

Goswami shares the results of a qualitative analysis of 110 movies released in 2004 and 2005 in India. Volunteers watched the movies to identify the instances of tobacco brand visibility; to analyse the association of tobacco with glamour, style, and emotions; and to record specific instances where statements facilitating tobacco consumption and situations where tobacco warnings were mocked. Responses from 1126 young people were collected through a survey questionnaire and evaluated.

BBS found that, since tobacco companies are now prohibited from any open advertisements, they were resorting to covert forms which included product placement in Indian
movies: 89% of the movies analysed depicted tobacco. This is 13% more than what was found through a similar BBS survey in 2003, prior to the tobacco advertising ban. Myths about tobacco use are also deliberately being promoted through movies, BBS contends.

Specific figures relating to the impact of tobacco in movies on youth are shared here. For example, 33.7% of all respondents were able to recall movies with a specific tobacco brand. This increased to 67% among those having some degree of tobacco influence. Among the tobacco user respondents, 45% admitted lighting a cigarette in the style of a film star and 63% admitted holding a cigarette in film-star style. 96.6% of respondents said that removing tobacco from movies would not affect their decision to watch movies. BBS believes that tobacco projection and depiction, even in a generic form (without showing brands) still has the same potential of increasing the overall sale of tobacco products and remains a win-win situation for the industry as a whole.

Click here for the full presentation in PDF format.

Click here to download the complete study in PDF format.

Click here for a related January 20 2006 press release, "WHO Study: Tobacco Brands in Indian Movies Nearly Triple after 2004 Advertising Ban."

Click here for a related January 2006 newsletter from Burning Brain Society on the "The Facts Vs. The Misinformation".

Source

Burning Brain Newsletter 7, Vol. III, July 2006.

Comments

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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 01/12/2008 - 02:52 Permalink

I consider that goverment of USA must stop import of cheap cigarettes from Euorupe (countries like Moldova, Russia. Store like this: cheap cigarettes. It's become serios problem for the children of USA. here i buy movies online and in any film there is allways cigarettes and tobacoo. It's not normal!!

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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 05:16 Permalink

Some of the net sites does not have good resource that students can rely on. It would be wonderful if the topic writen in the spaces provided on the web site to be given relayble info of the topic needed

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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 05:17 Permalink

This is very meaningful and right question, specially impact of indian movies on teens are very high that is why the usage of tobacco is increasing as well.