FORUM: “Unmasking the appeal: Exposing industry tactics on tobacco and nicotine products.’’ World No-Tobacco Day 2025. This year’s WNTD campaign aims to reveal the strategies employed by the tobacco and nicotine industries to make their harmful products enticing, particularly to young people. By exposing these tactics, WHO seeks to drive awareness, advocate for stronger policies, including a ban on flavours that make tobacco and nicotine products more appealing, and protect public health. One of the primary public health challenges today is the attractiveness of tobacco, nicotine, and related products, particularly to young audiences. The industry consistently tries to find ways to make these products appealing, adding flavours and other agents that change their smell, taste, or appearance. These additives are designed to mask the harshness of tobacco, thereby increasing its palatability, particularly among young people. Other tactics include (1) Glamorized marketing: Sleek designs, attractive colours, and alluring flavours are strategically used to attract a younger demographic, including through digital media channels. (2) Deceptive designs: Some products mimic sweets, candies, and even cartoon characters—items children naturally find appealing. (3) Coolants and additives: These can make the experience smoother, increasing the likelihood of continued use and reducing the chance of quitting. These tactics can contribute to early initiation of smoking or nicotine use, with potential lifelong addiction and health consequences. By making these products more attractive, the industry not only boosts their immediate consumer base but also makes quitting harder, prolonging exposure to harmful substances. The Goals 2025 WNTD campaign aims to Raise awareness by Informing the public on how industry tactics manipulate the appearance and appeal of tobacco and nicotine products; To Advocate for policy change (Measures to ban flavours and additives that make these products more appealing; the Complete bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, including on digital platforms; the regulation of the design of the products and their packages to make them less appealing; and to Reduce demand by Exposing these tactics aims to reduce demand, particularly among youth, ultimately lowering their exposure to nicotine and tobacco products. By unmasking these strategies, the campaign will to shine a light on the ways the industry markets addiction, driving demand reduction efforts and supporting long-term public health. Join the campaign to raise awareness and advocate for a healthier, tobacco-free future this World No Tobacco Day. Follow the conversation with the hashtags: #WorldNoTobaccoDay; #31May; #TobaccoControl.
EVENTS: The World No-Tobacco Day 2025 will be observed during a webinar held from the WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on May 31st. In 2025 WHO and public health champions from across the globe will come together for WNTD to raise awareness about the harmful tactics of the tobacco industry. The online event, will explore the marketing tricks, and design features and strategies that make nicotine and tobacco products appealing, including flavours, which continue to lure children and young people into nicotine addiction. Featuring global health leaders, government officials, youth advocates, and researchers, this one-line event will reveal how flavours, additives, as well as product packaging and other design elements, are engineered by tobacco and nicotine industries to appeal to new users and keep existing ones — and what countries are doing to push back. The Speakers will include the WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Head of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Dr Adriana Blanco Marquizo, leading researchers from South Africa, Yale University, and the Netherlands, tobacco control advocates, including the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and government officials. Media are welcome to attend and report on this timely, solution-focused dialogue that calls for decisive action to protect future generations. Watch recorded event!
We will also celebrate the anniversary of the adoption of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the global public health treaty that serves as the world’s front-line defence against the tobacco epidemic. Adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2003, it became one of the most rapidly embraced treaties in United Nations history – now with 182 Parties, representing more than 90% of the world’s population. The Convention was the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO), and in 2018 its first protocol – the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products – was adopted, further strengthening tobacco control. Register to participate!
AWARDS: World No Tobacco Day 2025 awards; The WNTD is also an opportunity to recognize outstanding contributions to tobacco control, and WHO/Europe is inviting nominations for the WNTD awards from countries across the WHO European Region. All nominations must be submitted by Friday, 31 January 2025, at 17:00 hrs (GMT). There will be a maximum of six World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) awards per WHO region. Two of the awardees might be granted special recognition by means of a WHO Director-General Special Recognition Award. Researchers, activists, civil society organizations, and journalism organizations from Canada, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, the United States, and Uruguay, as well as government agencies from Brazil, have been recognized with World Health Organization (WHO) World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) 2025 Awards at the 78th Session of the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. WHO headquarters will announce the awardees on WHO Tobacco Free Initiative’s website 5 days before 31 May. Learn more about the Call for nominations for the WHO World No Tobacco Day 2025 awards.
STATEMENTS: Message from PAHO/WHO Regional Director; Dr Jarbas Barbosa, on World No Tobacco Day 2025; May 31st.
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