World No Tobacco Day 2025 is a global campaign observed every year on 31st May to raise awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco use and to support effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. Initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1987, this annual observance shines a spotlight on the manipulative tactics used by tobacco and nicotine industries, and educates the public on their health consequences.
The theme is “Unmasking the Appeal”, focusing on the manipulative strategies of the tobacco and nicotine industries. These industries use addictive and tempting flavours, attractive packaging, and digital marketing tactics to target young people and sustain tobacco consumption. By exposing these deceptive practices, WHO aims to protect future generations and promote stronger regulatory actions.
According to the WHO, flavours like menthol, bubble gum and cotton candy are masking the harshness of tobacco and nicotine products turning toxic products into youth-friendly bait. Flavours not only make it harder to quit but have also been linked to serious lung diseases. Cigarettes, which still kill up to half of their users, also come in flavours or can have flavours added to them, engineered to be addictive.
To make matters worse major tobacco industries have found a way to heavily invest in e-cigarette claiming that it is a potential substitute for traditional cigarettes and promoting them as a way to get people out of their smoking habits. But reports have shown that many people are not using it as a weaning mechanism but are rather addicted to it.
In Europe, e-cigarette use among adolescents (12.5%) surpasses adult usage (2%). In some regions, school children use e-cigarettes at a rate two to three times higher than conventional cigarettes. In India, the picture is just as concerning with 253 million tobacco users—the second-highest in the world. 8.5% of youths (13–15 years) were current tobacco users in 2019. 4.1% of school children used smokeless tobacco.
The Government of India, which has already banned e-cigarettes aimed at protecting the youth, the section that is most vulnerable to the health hazards of vaping, is also required to ban candy cigarettes seen by advocates of public health care as a major contributor to starting smoking in adolescents.
Tobacco companies have decades of experience marketing their products to kids and teens adding flavours and so does the candy industries. In the 80s and 90s the candy cigarette known as the Phantom sweet cigarettes was popular, before being banned in 13 countries (including Canada, Brazil, Turkey and New Zealand) and certain parts of the USA.
In India, these candy cigarettes are still made available even online and so do shops around Shillong. Research suggests candy cigarettes desensitised children from the harmful effects of smoking tobacco and predisposes children who play with them to smoke the real things later.
Even if companies regard candy cigarettes as just confectionery, authorities must also “unmask the appeal” of the chalky sugar that has already taught kids the art of holding and puffing sweetly before real cigarettes trap them into a lifetime of addiction and disease.
