The violation of the bans on tobacco advertising and promotion at points of sale in Vietnam 2015

Abstract

     The study on “The violation of the bans on tobacco advertising and promotion at points of sale in six provinces in Vietnam 2015” was conducted to describe the violation of the bans on tobacco advertising, promotion (TAP) at points of sale (POSs), and to identify challenges in enforcing the bans on TAP in Vietnam. This was a cross sectional study with 1,999 POSs as the study subjects, using an observational checklist. The study also sought information on the challenges in enforcing the ban by in-depth interviews with inspectors of the Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism.

The study showed that the proportion of POSs that violated the ban on tobacco advertising at six study provinces was 19.2%. The compliance rate of displaying in a store no more than one pack carton or one bot of a tobacco brand was 97,6% and the rate of violating the ban on tobacco promotion was 4.2%. Some challenges of the enforcement of the TAP ban at POSs were low awareness among POSs’ owners of the bans on TAP and poor compliance of the TAP bans at POSs. The reluctance of inspectors to give penalties   to the violators was also one of the potential causes of  the identified challenges.

It is recommended that the awareness for POSs’ owners on the bans on TAP should be improved and penalties to violators of the bans should be strictly implemented.