English
Italiano 
Español First Sponsors, then Children! – The MOIGE and the Phony Campaigns
For the Italian Parents’ Movement - Movimento Italiano Genitori (MOIGE), children’s health is an entirely relative problem.
This association, which arrogates the right to represent Italian parents and enters homes and schools, conducts questionable campaigns on the prevention of smoking among minors, thanks to the money of Philip Morris and of the Italian Tobacconists Federation —Federazione Italiana Tabaccai— FIT.
An association like the MOIGE, “for parents dedicated to the safeguarding and the growth of their most precious fruits”, is ideal for Big Tobacco.
Such campaigns of sponsored pseudo-prevention have been condemned by the international scientific community, not so much because they are accompanied by the brand names and in any case do advertising, but because, besides being banal, rhetorical and ineffective, they subtly promote a “friendly marketing”, that is, an attractive image of the tobacco manufacturer sponsors.
However, these associations go farther, because their initiatives pursue the objectives of tobacco multinationals in a strategic way.
The priorities of Philip Morris today are:
- to defend the 10-cigarette pack, even though it is forbidden even in the countries of the third world because it makes it easier for young people to smoke, and in spite of the request for its abolition by the Italian Health Institute (l'Istituto Superiore di Sanità).
- to defend of the Minimum Price of cigarettes as a tool for determining prices as opposed to increasing the excises. This change would take the immense profits from the manufacturers and turn them over them to the State. In fact, that the European Union has brought suit against Italy in the European Court precisely because our country, thanks to the Minimum Price “is protecting the manufacturers’ profits and damaging the State’s tax revenues”.
How to conduct a phony campaign - step by step
- Find a partner with the right requirements. The "Movimento Italiano Genitori" is perfect because it gives outsiders the illusion that it is representing Italian parents.
- Forage the organization of great campaigns of awareness on the problem of smoking among minors obviously with the noble intention of safeguarding the health of our sons and daughters.
- Make sure everyone knows that the noble campaign is being conducted with the contribution of a noble company that has children’s health at heart.
- Ensure that during the various initiatives, in the publications, conferences, Internet sites, etc. people speak passionately about everything that regards the problem of smoking among minors - except about the 10-cigarette pack.
- Make certain that the sponsored association, obviously “ to safeguard the health of children”, asks for the application of the Minimum Price of cigarettes (that brings higher profits to the sponsor) and opposes an increase of the excise (that would increase the State revenues).
- Use the association to put forward superficial and unrealistic proposals like the single price "prezzo unico" of all cigarettes at 5.00 euro.
- Use the statements and the positions of the association for safeguarding health as elements to support one’s own positions, in both the legal and the legislative fields.
This is not prevention
“In the scientific field when we present a study, we have to declare that we have not received funding from tobacco companies, otherwise the study cannot be published”, said Professor Mangiaracina, president of the Sitab (Italian Tobaccology Society - Società Italiana di Tabaccologia).
”Prevention cannot be improvised, one thing we are sure of is that up to now it has been ineffective. Young people have remained the same because this type of prevention does not effect and does not alter their behavior”.
According to Mangiaracina, what might make everyone agree could be the institution of the Fondo Nazionale per la Lotta al Tabagismo (National Fund for the Fight against Nicotinism), an idea of the Senators Ignazio Marino (PD) and Antonio Tomassini (PDL), President of the XII Commissione Igiene e Sanità del Senato (Hygiene and Health Commission of the Senate).
This would be a national fund for policies that control tobacco; thanks to this fund, prevention would be handled following scientific criteria with a commission of experts at a national level who would assess the projects and constantly follow them in schools and in media campaigns.
The fight against nicotine addiction of Antonio Marino and Ignazio Tomassini also recommends that the fund is financed with fiscal revenues, setting aside a quota of 10% of the excise coming from cigarette sales.
…But if they defend the Minimum Price against an increase of the excise, what are they going to set up a national fund with?
Useful links
- www.genitori.it - Official website MOIGE (Italian Parents’ Movement - Movimento Italiano Genitori)
- www.tabaccologia.org - Official website Sitab (Italian Tobaccology Society - Società Italiana di Tabaccologia)
No Comments