Tobacco consumption and its role in the frame of the mega trend ‚healthstyle’

I. Introduction - From lifestyle to healthstyle

“Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson knew already in the 18th century that a healthy lifestyle builds the best base for ones daily life. The term ‚lifestyle’ changed in the context of the huge trend towards a healthier, more conscious way of living to the term ‚healthstyle’. But what is the healthstyle?

Healthstyle is actually a dynamic new approach to the combination of fitness, health and happiness. Health is in this junction no longer the absence of disease, but a lifestyle (Davis/Iverson 1984). Already in the very formal definition of the World Health Organization WHO from 1946 was health considered as something consistent: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” (WHO 1946)

Today, the work on the body, mind and soul with the aim of vitality has become a philosophy of life. The ambition is to achieve complete health, profound happiness and a deep sense of fulfilment (Malcolm 2002). Well-being is thus no longer considered as the constant moment during the two weeks of summer holidays but as a permanent process. Working on the own body to release hidden forces emphasizes willpower and emanates a positive personal status on the one hand. On the other hand, a healthy life stands today also for an optimized performance and better competitiveness (Landis 2010).

Health Style is one of the Megatrends of our era that people are confronted with in everyday life (Davis/Iverson 1984). But what are megatrends?

Megatrends are long-term and comprehensive transformation processes.^[1] They are seen as effective powerful influences that shape the markets of the future (Bakas 2009). They differ from other trends in three ways:

1. Time horizon

- Mega trends are to be observed over a period of several decades.
- For the present there do already exist quantitative, empirically clear indicators. They can be projected into the future for at least 15 years with an utmost probability (Riebartsch 2012).

2. Reach

- Megatrends appear comprehensively, its scope extends to all regions of the world. They cause multidimensional changes of all social Subsystems - politically, socially and economically. Their specific characteristics differ from region to region (Glocker 2002).

3. Strength of impact

- Megatrends act comprehensively and profoundly upon all stakeholders - governments, individuals and their consumption behaviour, but also companies and their strategies. (Glocker 2002).

Topics of the healthstyle can be Functional Food, Pilates/Tangolates, Health Consulting as well as health-conscious behaviour in general (Walter 2010, YouTube 2013). So as a matter of fact, smoking is also affected by such trend for life balance and health. In the upcoming chapter the tobacco consumption and its attempts to include the possible means of reducing such consumption will be examined. It might be of help to explain that in this work being addictive to smoking is considered as something that arises from the society, which in turn itself shapes the individual. The addiction is therefore at its very core created by outside influences and persistently intensified instead of regarded as some sort of forcing drive by human nature whose carrying out would be seen equal to other needs like eating or sleeping.

II. Tobacco

The issue of smoking tobacco and the people’s opinion towards smoking perfectly fits into the big picture of health style because the reasons for a rethink in society concerning its consummation are caused by the discovery of negative health aspects that come along with smoking. In 1950 the British scientist Sir Richard Doll exposed a link between smoking and lung cancer. He interviewed 5’000 patients in British hospitals and found that out of 1,357 men with lung cancer 99,5% of those sufferers were smokers (Doll 1950). Such discovery was the actual tipping point that caused the change (Peto 2000).

According to Dolls discovery more scientists did research on the topic. The German Dr. Ernst Ludwig Wynder wrote a landmark report in 1950 after he found out that painting cigarette tar on the backs of mice creates tumours. That was the very first biological link between smoking and cancer (Wynder 1950).

In the 1950s smoking was simply part of the society and already prestigious itself (Proctor 2004). For example, back then it was part of the etiquette that the host handed out cigarettes after dinner, smoking was permitted in all public places - it was even desired. Whether in movies, on posters or as advertisement on popular products like Formula 1 cars – the tobacco industry was omnipresent, always showing up with a cool strapline combined with enviable pictures (Davis 2008). They built on the image of the cool Marlboro man for many years (Brandt 1990).

Even though the negative aspects were public and research had shown that smoking reduces life expectancy by seven to eight years, the people’s awareness of the risks and dangers that can be associated with tobacco smoking first failed to appear for many years (Breed 1995, Proctor 2004). Today, such image of the cool Marlboro man is gone though. The governments caused the awareness and the change from smoking being en vogue to something that is negatively connoted. One of the most important ways to change the public attitude towards smoking was by restricting the industry concerning their marketing campaigns and possibilities to attract the customers (Davis 2008).

[...]

^[1] The term "Megatrend" was coined by John Naisbitt, who wrote an eponymous Bestseller about 30 years ago in 1982. In his work he drew a picture of the future of the millennium, based on 10 sweeping developments and thus became a pioneer of trend research in business and society. In retrospect, one must recognize without envy: Naisbitt showed in his analysis the necessary foresight and also coined for example the term of the ‚globalization’ (Naisbitt 1982). He also anticipated the increasing self-responsibility of the individual, the information and multi-option society and realized that decentralized, network-like structures will dominate in the new millennium (Naisbitt 2000).