ArticleJournal of epidemiology and community health2007
Thailand--lighting up a dark market: British American tobacco, sports sponsorship and the circumvention of legislation.
Article in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A Systematic Review of Tobacco Industry Tactics in Southeast Asia: Lessons for Other Low- And MiddleIncome Regions.International journal of health policy and management · 2021Pooled it
- The vector of the tobacco epidemic: tobacco industry practices in low and middle-income countries.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2012Pooled it
- The policy implementation playbook: a cross-policy taxonomy of post-adoption tobacco industry tactics.Globalization and health · 2026Review
- Perception and the influence of information toward e-cigarette smoking behavior.Tobacco induced diseases · 2024Article
- Successful countering of tobacco industry efforts to overturn Thailand's ENDS ban.Tobacco control · 2021Article
- How to combat efforts to overturn bans on electronic nicotine delivery systems: lessons from tobacco industry efforts during the 1980s to open closed cigarette markets in Thailand.BMJ global health · 2021Review
- Tobacco control law implementation in a middle-income country: Transnational tobacco control network overcoming tobacco industry opposition in Colombia.Global public health · 2018Article
- "It is merely a paper tiger." Battle for increased tobacco advertising regulation in Indonesia: content analysis of news articles.BMJ open · 2017Article
- 'Preparing ourselves to become an international organization': Thailand Tobacco Monopoly's regional and global strategies.Global public health · 2017Article
- To 'enable our legal product to compete effectively with the transit market': British American Tobacco's strategies in Thailand following the 1990 GATT dispute.Global public health · 2016Article
- Eat, drink and gamble: marketing messages about 'risky' products in an Australian major sporting series.BMC public health · 2013Article
- Are transnational tobacco companies' market access strategies linked to economic development models? A case study of South Korea.Global public health · 2013Article
- "Trade policy, not morals or health policy": the US Trade Representative, tobacco companies and market liberalization in Thailand.Global social policy · 2012Article
- "Coming to town": the impact of urbanicity, cigarette advertising, and network norms on the smoking attitudes of black women in Cape Town, South Africa.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2008Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo examine how British American Tobacco (BAT) used sports sponsorship to circumvent restrictions on tobacco promotion in Thailand, both a key emerging market and a world leader in tobacco control.
methodAnalysis of previously confidential BAT company documents.
resultsSince its inception in 1987, BAT's sports sponsorship programme in Thailand has been politically sensitive and legally ambiguous. Given Thailand's ban on imported cigarettes, early events provided promotional support to smuggled brands. BAT's funding of local badminton, snooker, football and cricket tournaments generated substantial media coverage for its brands. After the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs decision that obliged Thailand to open its cigarette market to imports, Thailand's 1992 tobacco control legislation established one of the world's most restrictive marketing environments. BAT's sponsorship strategy shifted to rallying and motorbike racing, using broadcasts of regional competitions to undermine national regulations. BAT sought to dominate individual sports and to shape media coverage to maximise brand awareness. An adversarial approach was adopted, testing the limits of legality and requiring active enforcement to secure compliance with legislation.
conclusionsThe documents show the opportunities offered by sports sponsorship to tobacco companies amid increasing advertising restrictions. Before the 1992 tobacco control legislation, sponsored events in Thailand promoted international brands by combining global and local imagery. The subsequent strategy of "regionalisation as defensibility" reflected the capacity of international sport to transcend domestic restrictions. These transnational effects may be effectively dealt with via the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, but will require the negotiation of a specific protocol.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.