Latest news with #MelinaMagsumbol
Time of India
7 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
Tobacco companies are now using NFTs, online gaming and avatars for promotion rising vaping risk; experts warn
Source: World Conference on Tobacco Control Study Tobacco marketing in the metaverse is emerging as one of the biggest public health concerns of 2024. Researchers have found that tobacco companies are using virtual reality platforms, NFTs, and gaming communities to promote smoking and vaping among young audiences. These immersive digital strategies bypass traditional advertising restrictions and target users where regulations have not yet caught up. Experts warn that this new wave of digital tobacco marketing could normalise harmful behaviours among teenagers and young adults, threatening decades of progress in tobacco control. Metaverse becomes new ground for teen tobacco marketing The metaverse is transforming how brands connect with audiences, and tobacco companies are exploiting this unregulated environment. Social media images show avatars smoking in virtual bars and cafés, while gaming platforms host immersive events linked to tobacco brands. A recent World Conference on Tobacco Control report highlighted how companies are issuing NFTs and hosting branded experiences to engage users. This groundbreaking research comes from the Canary Project, run by the global health organization Vital Strategies. Acting as a 'canary in the coalmine,' the program monitors tobacco and vape promotions across digital spaces in India, Indonesia, Mexico, and beyond. Evidence shows targeted campaigns aimed at normalizing smoking and vaping in youth-oriented online communities. More than half of the metaverse's active users are aged 13 and below, making them highly vulnerable. Experts warn that these virtual interactions blur reality and can influence social norms around smoking. 'The combination of immersive technology and addictive marketing is deeply concerning,' says Dr. Melina Magsumbol of Vital Strategies India. Source: YouTube WHO warns online tobacco marketing could spark teen vaping surge Unlike traditional advertising, digital promotions can bypass geographical restrictions and age regulations. Researchers found promotions embedded in gaming worlds and virtual events, with some tobacco companies even celebrating anniversaries through digital collectibles. Experts fear this could trigger an increase in youth experimentation with smoking and vaping. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that digital tobacco and vaping promotions could reverse years of progress in reducing youth smoking rates. Countries are being urged to expand their tobacco control policies to include digital marketing channels, as children increasingly spend time online due to factors like the pandemic and gaming trends. Experts warn unregulated online ads risk normalizing youth smoking Youth advocates, such as those at Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids , emphasize digital literacy as a defense against covert marketing. Teaching students how to identify online advertising and influencer-driven promotions can help reduce the impact of such campaigns. Experts believe building these skills at an early age is crucial to safeguarding future generations. Experts agree that regulating the internet is complex, as cross-border digital environments lack the strict frameworks seen in physical advertising. However, ignoring these emerging trends may lead to widespread normalization of harmful habits among youth. Also Read | 'I don't believe I'll die': Tech mogul Bryan Johnson is blending AI and biology to outlive death itself AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
NDTV
7 days ago
- Health
- NDTV
How Tobacco Companies Are Using Gaming, Metaverse And NFTs To Target Young Smokers
Tobacco and alcohol companies are finding new ways to reach young audiences through the metaverse, bypassing traditional regulations, according to The Guardian. A report presented at the World Conference on Tobacco Control in Dublin revealed how virtual spaces are becoming a fresh marketing battleground. The findings show that tobacco companies are using digital tokens, while vape brands are sponsoring online games to subtly promote smoking and vaping habits among younger users, as per the news portal. The research comes from Canary, a global monitoring project by public health group Vital Strategies. Named after the "canary in a coal mine," the project aims to alert the world to emerging public health risks. Health campaigners say these virtual promotions pose a serious threat as they operate in largely unregulated environments, making it easier for companies to influence impressionable audiences. Experts warn that without stronger oversight, the metaverse could become a powerful tool to normalise smoking and vaping for a new generation. "Tobacco companies are no longer waiting for regulations to catch them up. They are way ahead of us. We are still trying to understand what we're seeing in social media, but they're already operating in unregulated spaces like the metaverse," Dr Melina Magsumbol, of Vital Strategies India told The Guardian."They're using NFTs [non-fungible tokens]. They're using immersive events to get our kids to come and see what they're offering." In India, one tobacco company made and promoted an NFT, which represents ownership of digital assets, to celebrate its 93rd anniversary. Canary scans for and analyses tobacco marketing on social media platforms and news sites in India, Indonesia and Mexico. It is expanding to more countries, including Brazil and China, and to cover alcohol and ultra-processed food marketing. In an another interviews Melina Samar Magsumbol told "Social media is where the youth are - and that's exactly where the tobacco industry is going. "Instagram, TikTok, YouTube - these platforms are being used to glamorise tobacco through indirect marketing, often slipping through policy loopholes undetected." Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death, killing 8 million people every year, according to the World Health Organization's 2025 report on the global tobacco epidemic, released Monday (23 June), with poorer countries bearing the highest burden.
The Guardian
22-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Smoking avatars and online games: how big tobacco targets young people in the metaverse
In the image, a group of friends is standing in a bar, smoke winding upwards from the cigarettes in their hands. More lie in an open packet on the table between them. This is not a photograph taken before smoking bans, but a picture shared on social media of a gathering in the metaverse. Virtual online spaces are becoming a new marketing battleground as tobacco and alcohol promoters target young people without any legislative consequences. A report shared at the World Conference on Tobacco Control last month in Dublin set out multiple examples of new technologies being adopted to promote smoking and vaping, including tobacco companies launching digital tokens and vape companies sponsoring online games. It comes from a monitoring project known as Canary – because it seeks to act as the canary in a coalmine – run by the global public health organisation Vital Strategies. 'Tobacco companies are no longer waiting for regulations to catch them up. They are way ahead of us. We are still trying to understand what we're seeing in social media, but they're already operating in unregulated spaces like the metaverse,' says Dr Melina Magsumbol, of Vital Strategies India. 'They're using NFTs [non-fungible tokens]. They're using immersive events to get our kids to come and see what they're offering.' In India, one tobacco company made and promoted an NFT, which represents ownership of digital assets, to celebrate its 93rd anniversary. Canary scans for and analyses tobacco marketing on social media platforms and news sites in India, Indonesia and Mexico. It is expanding to more countries, including Brazil and China, and to cover alcohol and ultra-processed food marketing. It is not set up to scan the metaverse – a three-dimensional, immersive version of the internet that uses technology such as virtual reality headsets to enable people to interact in a digital space. But it has picked up references to what is going on there via links and information shared on older social media sites. Researchers say that children are likely to be exposed to any tobacco marketing in the new digital spaces given the age profile of users – more than half of the metaverse's active users are aged 13 and below. Social media companies have deep knowledge of how to drive engagement and keep people coming back for more views, says Dr Mary-Ann Etiebet, chief executive of Vital Strategies. 'When you combine that with the experience and the knowledge of the tobacco industry on how to hook and keep people hooked … those two things together in a space that is unknown and opaque – that scares me.' Mark Zuckerberg, metaverse's prominent backer, says in future 'you'll be able to do almost anything you can imagine' there. Already, that includes shopping and attending virtual concerts. But Magsumbol describes it as 'a new battleground for all of us' that is 'being taken over by corporate entities that actually push health-harming products'. 'My daughter is very quiet, she's an introvert. But online, on [gaming platform] Roblox, when she is killing zombies and ghosts, she morphs into a different avatar – she's like Alexander the Great mixed with Bruce Lee and John Wick. She is so bloodthirsty,' she says. 'Online we behave differently. Social norms change … the tobacco industry knows that very well. And it's so easy to subtly sell the idea that you can be anything, anyone you want.' The metaverse art the team saw in Indonesia was shared on an Instagram account for electronic music lovers linked to Djarum, one of Indonesia's largest cigarette companies. Another example showed a group having coffee, and looking for a lighter. It all amounts to efforts to 'normalise' smoking and vaping, says Magsumbol. 'This kind of behaviour is happening and being done by your avatars, but is it seeping into your real life? 'Digital platforms are being used to bypass traditional advertising restrictions and target young audiences,' she says. 'What we're seeing here is not just a shift in marketing, it's a shift in how influence works.' Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion Other researchers have set out examples of alcohol being promoted and even sold in virtual stores. Online marketing is a global issue. At the same conference, Irish researchers shared findings that 53% of teenagers saw e-cigarette posts daily on social media. A World Health Organization official (WHO) says a rise in youth smoking in Ukraine is due, in part, to Covid and the war pushing children 'too much online' and exposing them to marketing. In India, Agamroop Kaur, a youth ambassador at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, includes social media marketing when speaking to schoolchildren about the dangers of tobacco and vaping. She has seen vapes suggested as a 'wellness' item. 'I think educating youth on what an advertisement looks like, why it's false, how you might not even see that it's from the tobacco industry and it's [content posted by an] influencer is really powerful because then that builds a skill – so that when they're on social media, because they are digital natives, they're able to see all of that and know that it's fake and it's not something they should be attracted by. I think building those skills early from high school to middle school, and even younger, is really important.' The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control requires countries to implement bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. Last year, signatories agreed that action was needed to tackle the increasing focus on 'digital marketing channels such as social media, which increases adolescent and young people's exposure to tobacco marketing'. But there is no easy answer, says Andrew Black at the framework's secretariat. 'The challenge of regulating the internet is not a problem that's unique to tobacco. It's a real challenge for governments to think about how they can provide the protections that society is used to in a world where borders are broken down because of these technologies.' Nandita Murukutla, who oversees Canary, says regulators should take note: 'What starts out small and you ignore, rises up to a certain point when you've got critical mass, and after that, it just explodes, and dialling something back is virtually impossible.' The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods. Secure Messaging in the Guardian app The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said. If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select 'Secure Messaging'. SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post See our guide at for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each.
The Guardian
22-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Smoking avatars and online games: how big tobacco targets young people in the metaverse
In the image, a group of friends is standing in a bar, smoke winding upwards from the cigarettes in their hands. More lie in an open packet on the table between them. This is not a photograph taken before smoking bans, but a picture shared on social media of a gathering in the metaverse. Virtual online spaces are becoming a new marketing battleground as tobacco and alcohol promoters target young people without any legislative consequences. A report shared at the World Conference on Tobacco Control last month in Dublin set out multiple examples of new technologies being adopted to promote smoking and vaping, including tobacco companies launching digital tokens and vape companies sponsoring online games. It comes from a monitoring project known as Canary – because it seeks to act as the canary in a coalmine – run by the global public health organisation Vital Strategies. 'Tobacco companies are no longer waiting for regulations to catch them up. They are way ahead of us. We are still trying to understand what we're seeing in social media, but they're already operating in unregulated spaces like the metaverse,' says Dr Melina Magsumbol, of Vital Strategies India. 'They're using NFTs [non-fungible tokens]. They're using immersive events to get our kids to come and see what they're offering.' In India, one tobacco company made and promoted an NFT, which represents ownership of digital assets, to celebrate its 93rd anniversary. Canary scans for and analyses tobacco marketing on social media platforms and news sites in India, Indonesia and Mexico. It is expanding to more countries, including Brazil and China, and to cover alcohol and ultra-processed food marketing. It is not set up to scan the metaverse – a three-dimensional, immersive version of the internet that uses technology such as virtual reality headsets to enable people to interact in a digital space. But it has picked up references to what is going on there via links and information shared on older social media sites. Researchers say that children are likely to be exposed to any tobacco marketing in the new digital spaces given the age profile of users – more than half of the metaverse's active users are aged 13 and below. Social media companies have deep knowledge of how to drive engagement and keep people coming back for more views, says Dr Mary-Ann Etiebet, chief executive of Vital Strategies. 'When you combine that with the experience and the knowledge of the tobacco industry on how to hook and keep people hooked … those two things together in a space that is unknown and opaque – that scares me.' Mark Zuckerberg, metaverse's prominent backer, says in future 'you'll be able to do almost anything you can imagine' there. Already, that includes shopping and attending virtual concerts. But Magsumbol describes it as 'a new battleground for all of us' that is 'being taken over by corporate entities that actually push health-harming products'. 'My daughter is very quiet, she's an introvert. But online, on [gaming platform] Roblox, when she is killing zombies and ghosts, she morphs into a different avatar – she's like Alexander the Great mixed with Bruce Lee and John Wick. She is so bloodthirsty,' she says. 'Online we behave differently. Social norms change … the tobacco industry knows that very well. And it's so easy to subtly sell the idea that you can be anything, anyone you want.' The metaverse art the team saw in Indonesia was shared on an Instagram account for electronic music lovers linked to Djarum, one of Indonesia's largest cigarette companies. Another example showed a group having coffee, and looking for a lighter. It all amounts to efforts to 'normalise' smoking and vaping, says Magsumbol. 'This kind of behaviour is happening and being done by your avatars, but is it seeping into your real life? Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion 'Digital platforms are being used to bypass traditional advertising restrictions and target young audiences,' she says. 'What we're seeing here is not just a shift in marketing, it's a shift in how influence works.' Other researchers have set out examples of alcohol being promoted and even sold in virtual stores. Online marketing is a global issue. At the same conference, Irish researchers shared findings that 53% of teenagers saw e-cigarette posts daily on social media. A World Health Organization official (WHO) says a rise in youth smoking in Ukraine is due, in part, to Covid and the war pushing children 'too much online' and exposing them to marketing. In India, Agamroop Kaur, a youth ambassador at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, includes social media marketing when speaking to schoolchildren about the dangers of tobacco and vaping. She has seen vapes suggested as a 'wellness' item. 'I think educating youth on what an advertisement looks like, why it's false, how you might not even see that it's from the tobacco industry and it's [content posted by an] influencer is really powerful because then that builds a skill – so that when they're on social media, because they are digital natives, they're able to see all of that and know that it's fake and it's not something they should be attracted by. I think building those skills early from high school to middle school, and even younger, is really important.' The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control requires countries to implement bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. Last year, signatories agreed that action was needed to tackle the increasing focus on 'digital marketing channels such as social media, which increases adolescent and young people's exposure to tobacco marketing'. But there is no easy answer, says Andrew Black at the framework's secretariat. 'The challenge of regulating the internet is not a problem that's unique to tobacco. It's a real challenge for governments to think about how they can provide the protections that society is used to in a world where borders are broken down because of these technologies.' Nandita Murukutla, who oversees Canary, says regulators should take note: 'What starts out small and you ignore, rises up to a certain point when you've got critical mass, and after that, it just explodes, and dialling something back is virtually impossible.'
