British American Tobacco Annual Meeting

GYAT members from the U.S. and Nigeria collaborated with Action on Smoking or Health (London) and members of the England-based groups D-Myst and ATYC to organize multiple youth advocacy events around the meeting, including an advocacy training and a rally outside the meeting itself. GYAT members from India, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Sudan, Tanzania, Vietnam also provided valuable information for ASH’s report “You’ve got to be kidding” which details how the company is targeting worldwide and was released on the day of the meeting. In response to the report and irrefutable evidence that BAT promotes single sales of cigarettes in Nigerian that one of the Nigerian youth advocates presented to a BAT executive, the company has acknowledged violating its own marketing code of conduct. ASH has also been inspired to seek funding to establish a youth advocacy program in England. For more information see ASH’s press releases about the meeting (available at www.ash.org.uk) and a video created by Ken Dahlgren: