Overview

WHO has selected "Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship" as the theme for World No Tobacco Day 2013 to:

spur countries to implement Article 13 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and its guidelines to comprehensively ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship such that fewer people start and continue to use tobacco

drive local, national and international efforts to counteract tobacco industry efforts to undermine tobacco control, specifically industry efforts to stall or stop comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

Tobacco is the only legal consumer product that kills when used exactly as intended by the manufacturer. World No Tobacco Day will help to save more lives and to limit the damage caused by tobacco use.

The key messages of this year's World No Tobacco Day are that governments, policy-makers and civil society must work to:

comprehensively ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship

counteract the deceptive and misleading nature of tobacco marketing campaigns

thwart the unavoidable exposure of youth to tobacco marketing

demonstrate the failure of the tobacco industry to effectively self-regulate

highlight the ineffectiveness of partial bans

follow the guidelines on implementation of Article 13 of the WHO FCTC.