HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS REGISTER		Author Keyword(s) Vol Page [Advanced]

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this link to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Add article to my folders Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Jacobson, P D Articles by Banerjee, A Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Jacobson, P D Articles by Banerjee, A

Social movements and human rights rhetoric in tobacco control

University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Correspondence to:
Professor Peter D Jacobson
JD, MPH, Center for Law and Health Systems, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI 48109–2029, USA; pdj{at}umich.edu

After achieving breathtaking successes in securing state and local restrictions on smoking in public places and restricting youth access to tobacco products, the tobacco movement faces difficult decisions on its future strategic directions. The thesis of this article is that the tobacco control movement is at a point of needing to secure its recent successes and avoiding any public retrenchment. To do so requires rethinking the movement’s strategic direction. We use the familiar trans-theoretical model of change to describe where the movement is currently and the threats it faces. The new tobacco control strategy should encompass a focus on voluntary non-smoking strategies, use human rights rhetoric to its advantage, and strengthen the public health voice to be more effective in political battles. In developing a new strategy, tobacco control advocates need to build a social movement based on a more forceful public health voice, along with the strategic use of human rights rhetoric, to focus on the power of voluntary non-smoking efforts. Using human rights rhetoric can help frame the movement in ways that have traditionally appealed to the American public. Perhaps more importantly, doing so can help infuse the tobacco control movement with a broader sense of purpose and mission.

Keywords: human rights rhetoric; social movements; tobacco control advocacy; trans-theoretical model of change