Tobacco Control Case Study: Mexico – The Power of Strategic Public Relations

Public places in Mexico—including restaurants, public transportation and schools—continue to be filled with smoke, and more than 60,000 people in Mexico die each year from smoking-related diseases, yet there had been no tobacco tax increase in the country since 2011, not even one indexed to inflation. Tobacco taxes have proven to be the most effective policy in reducing tobacco use around the world.

Since 2017, Vital Strategies has conducted an active public relations effort to engage government, journalists and advocacy organizations to bring attention to the urgent need for stronger tobacco control policy, especially the need to raise stagnant tobacco taxes.