NEWS OF THE DAY [CNN] News 1. Asia. Tobacco's Last Frontier.

[NUKE209]

[NEW WORDS]

  ♤ frontier : n. 국경, 새 분야

  ♤ blame A for B : A를 B에 대해 비난하다/ 책임을 떠넘기다

  ♤ smoke screen : n. 연막

  ♤ promote : v. 판촉하다, 광고하다

  ♤ account : n. 거래처, 일

  ♤ ease : v. 쉬워지다, 약해지다, 완화시키다, 편해지다

  ♤ multinational : n. 다국적 기업

  ♤ billboard : n. 광고판

  ♤ get A across : ~을 이해시키다

  ♤ stem : v. 저지하다, 막다, 억누르다

  ♤ influx : n. 유입, 쇄도

  ♤ match : n. 경쟁상대, 적수

  ♤ turn A into B : A를 B로 바꾸다

  ♤ push : n. 밀기, 압박, 공격, 압력

  ♤ opium : n. 아편

  ♤ flood : v. 범람시키다, 가득 채우다

  ♤ take one's place : ~를 대신하다

  ♤ shortage : n. 부족, 결핍

  As health officials spread the word that cigarettes can kill, thousands are kicking the habit in North America. But in Asia, it's quite a different story. And, as Adrian Brown reports, health officials blame cigarette makers for putting up a smoke screen.

  Selling cigarettes the modern way on the tennis courts of Hong Kong, and promoting them the old fashioned way on the streets of Cambodia.

  Whatever the approach, the aim is the same: bigger sales in the East of a product fast losing its appeal in the West.

  "Tobacco for us is another advertising account that has a legal right to be there. I mean, ... they.. they are... it is a legal product and we believe they should have a right to market that product."

  Restrictions on imported brand names have eased, and tobacco multinationals have been quick to move in. Now there are few Asian cities where you can escape the cigarette billboards, in places, even challenging traditional symbols of Asian culture.

  In a continent which consumes half the world's cigarettes, the cigarette makers have been getting their message across, and long before the health lobby ever tried.
  They're trying now in the more developed cities like Hong Kong and Singapore in an attempt to stem the tobacco influx.

  "In the Hong Kong scene, we are doing very .. um... energetic work in educating the young people thorough our education network."

  But energy and good intentions are barely a match for advertising budgets. And gathering in larger numbers at industry events like this one are the ad people, who know how to turn tobacco company dollars into persuasive messages.

  "In places where we can sponsor, we sponsor. In places where we can advertise, we advertise."

 "In fact, if everybody in America, if everybody in Europe stopped smoking tomorrow, frankly, it wouldn't matter at all, if they could capture the China market."

  For antismoking campaigners like Dr. Judith MacKay in Hong Kong, the push by the tobacco companies in China is history repeating itself.

  One hundred and fifty years ago, Hong Kong was the base of the Western opium traders, trying to flood southern China with their product. Today, say their critics, the tobacco companies have taken their place, and they have no shortage of customers.
Adrian Brown, for CNN in Hong Kong.