Japan Tobacco
is hoping to keep smoking acceptable in as many places as possible. The ads, which started on a limited scale in 2004, have recently rolled out on a wider basis, including new television spots
promoting portable ashtrays.
The campaign urges smokers to stop doing the kinds of things that could reduce them to social-outcast status, from dropping cigarette butts in public
places to blowing smoke in other people's faces. "Don't smoke in a crowd, coats are expensive," says one of 40 different print and outdoor ads that hang in Tokyo's subway and other public areas.
Anti-smoking activist Manabu Sakuta charges that the campaign is just a way to boost Japan Tobacco's image, which will, in turn, boost tobacco sales.
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