Tobacco advertising ban in Switzerland: what does it mean?
Tobacco advertising ban in Switzerland: Elections were held in Switzerland on 13.02.22. The tobacco advertising ban is a done deal. Only tobacco advertising aimed at adults or in places to which minors do not have access is permitted. This definition is so slippery that it is unclear what remains permitted and what is no longer.
Please register now for Cigars.Zone Plusso that you can continue to receive the online publications from Zigarren.Zone free of charge, thank you very much.
Photos prohibited on social media?
Questions remain unanswered: Is a publicly accessible online cigar store advertising? What about advertisements in special interest magazines such as "Cigar" and "Cigar Journal?" Are smoke events still allowed to be held because you have to advertise such an event? Can photos of cigars still be shown on social media because it is ultimately also advertising for the brand? The law needs to be defined first.
What happens to Zigarren.Zone?
If such an online magazine is no longer allowed to be publicly accessible, we will activate access for members only at the touch of a button. Membership remains free, but you can only read the articles after logging in. Zigarren.Zone will remain and continue to write about cigars. Zigarren.Zone has started with additional, new content: Stillepost is coming in 2023.
Voices from the industry on the tobacco advertising ban
I asked some of my sources before and after the vote if they knew more details. I got the following answers:
The following source wishes to remain unnamed: "The initiative aims to protect children and young people. They should not come into contact with information about tobacco products. We can only guess what impact a complete ban on advertising would have on the implementation guidelines. Specifically, no one has thought about how a ban on advertising could be implemented in a free economy with legal products.
A complete media ban in publicly accessible areas would certainly be the result. It could go so far that there are age restrictions for access to specialist retailers and/or products may no longer be visibly presented, no information material may be displayed, separate rooms for adults. For cigar magazines, this would mean distribution only to adults ("under the counter") and online stores would very probably have to set up an age check to be verified."
Christoph Läubin, owner of zigarren-online.ch: "I think young people are already sufficiently protected by the current measures, but the people have now decided otherwise. Cigars are generally not a gateway to the world of tobacco addiction, but are lumped together with other tobacco products. It is not clear from the text of the initiative how far the advertising restrictions will go.
It is clear that the parliament now has around 3 years to draft these regulations and lawyers will still have a lot to do with clarifying who is allowed to do what. Is an online store basically advertising? Or the banner on it? Or the free delivery of a cigar? Or the box discount? How should protection for under 18s be provided online? We already check the age of every new customer, so we don't send tobacco products and spirits to under-18s, so nothing will change."
Tobias Hüberli, Publishing Director Salz&Pfeffer AG, from the magazine Cigar: "I fully support the idea of protecting young people from cigarettes. However, the initiative is a major encroachment on freedom of trade. Cigar is a special interest magazine for premium cigars. We are collateral damage in this matter. Now we have to see how the initiative is implemented. Despite everything, I am confident that we will find a good way forward for Cigar."
The Internet Talk with Michael Hamilos
He is Sponsoring and Event Manager Switzerland, Japan Tobacco International. I spoke to him.
Responses