RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Social movements and human rights rhetoric in tobacco control
JF Tobacco Control
JO Tob Control
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP ii45
OP ii49
DO 10.1136/tc.2004.008029
VO 14
IS suppl 2
A1 P D Jacobson
A1 A Banerjee
YR 2005
UL http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/14/suppl_2/ii45.abstract
AB 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.