Unmasking influencer marketing: how tobacco companies manipulate public perception in South Africa

style="font-weight: 400;">said it was investigating the group she was posting about, Alabuga Start. The names of 10 social media influencers who promoted the group are now with law enforcement. 

This came after a report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime found credible evidence that the programme recruits young women to work at facilities that manufacture drones used as Russian weapons.

The above example raises questions about the kind of interests that social media influencers may be representing in the unregulated social media space. 

Companies have been paying influencers to do what they do — influence — for years. 

Tobacco companies are notorious for using this type of marketingtactic when they are trying to sell their products or advance their own policy interests. The most recent example of this appears to be in the case of the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Control Systems Bill. The Bill moved through Parliament’s health committee, which wrapped up public hearings last week, and will now be reviewed by the health department.

“Very soon it will be illegal for [street vendors] to sell loose cigarettes,” Sbusiso Leope, better known as DJ Sbu, posted from a taxi rank in June to his 1.3 million Instagram followers. A month later, he promoted a live discussion on how the Bill will hurt informal traders on his Instagram, TikTok and Facebook accounts.

Another Instagram and TikTok influencer, who posts short comedy skits, claimed that the government was “secretly” working to ban loose cigarettes, while reality TV star and spiritual healer Michelle Mvundla, who posts as Mpho wa Badimo, told her 800,000 followers that the new Bill will make it illegal for informal traders to sell cigarettes at all.

DJ Sbu’s claims are true – it will be illegal to sell loose cigarettes, as the Bill says that tobacco products can’t be sold without an intact package. But unlike the other influencer said in his post, it’s no government secret – it is just part of the Bill. 

The claim that it will be illegal for informal traders to sell cigarettes at all is also untrue. The Bill doesn’t mention restricting the sale of cigarettes, only that they may not be sold to children, through the internet or postal services, or near places where children get education.

What’s also true is that a ban on single cigarettes will likely hit informal traders hard. Organisations representing hawkers and spaza shop owners, such as the National Informal Traders Alliance of South Africa (Nitasa), say the most common way that informal traders sell cigarettes is to sell them individually. In fact, in an August presentation to Parliament, University of Pretoria public health expert Lekan Ayo-Yusuf said nearly half of smokers in South Africa buy single cigarettes.

But public health experts are concerned. 

They say the selective picture that some of the influencers are presenting may confuse the public on important issues that the Bill seeks to address. In this way, they may be taking up classic tobacco industry talking points and tactics, without even knowing it.

Team tobacco?

These posts are part of a social media campaign by Nitasa. It says it has “teamed up” with local content creators to talk about how bans on single cigarette sales and any displays of tobacco products will affect the country’s informal traders, which StatsSA estimated at nearly 2 million in 2023.

In an August post, Nitasa shared a clip from a recent breakfast show with DJ Sbu on Radio 2000, where its spokesperson talked about the same issues – what the Bill says, how single cigarette bans will cause people to smoke more and the work Nitasa does to help informal traders register their businesses.

“My biggest surprise is that as someone who works for the good of the society, one would have thought that [DJ Sbu] would look at the ultimate impact [of tobacco or nicotine] on the people he’s seeking to protect, because he comes up with the notion that, ‘Oh, I’m trying to protect small scale traders,” says Catherine Egbe, a senior specialist scientist from the South African Medical Research Council’s mental health, alcohol, substance use and tobacco research unit. 

“But what he doesn’t understand is that more people who are of low socioeconomic status are impacted negatively by tobacco. More people who are of low socioeconomic status do not have access to healthcare services when they contract tobacco related diseases.”

Nitasa’s general secretary, Mampapatla Madikoto, told Bhekisisa that the penalty for selling single cigarettes is a 10-year prison sentence. “This would essentially ban any informal trader from opening a packet of cigarettes to sell a loose draw, which is unthinkable.”

But that’s where the confusion starts. 

The goal? To get people to change their minds 

The Bill actually proposes bans on public smoking, cigarette displays at points of sale and the sale of cigarettes not in intact packaging – which would largely affect informal traders, who sell single cigarettes – as well as that packs carry plain packaging and graphic warnings. 

What it doesn’t say is that an informal trader selling a single cigarette would immediately land in prison for 10 years. It proposes that offenders, which includes manufacturers, distributors, spaza shops and other major retailers such as grocery and liquor outlets and, yes, informal traders, can face a fine or prison time up to 10 years or both if they violate one of the many proposed regulations.

Egbe says the misinformation is a deliberate attempt to sway public opinion. While the Bill says offenders could be liable, the ultimate ruling would be for a judge to decide which punishment fits which crime, and for which offender. 

And Egbe makes the point that a judge isn’t likely to treat an informal trader the same way as a manufacturer or major retailer – which includes huge companies worth billions of dollars – or even a supplier or retailer.

Parliamentarians are also raising the alarm on incorrect information about the Bill, which introduces rules for how and where tobacco products can be sold and consumed to stop people from smoking, to help those who do to quit and to protect non-smokers from being exposed to smoke. 

At a recent public hearing, MP Sheilla Xego said the Bill won’t ban smoking. “It’s about saving people and their health. Quitting may be the end result but it is left to be voluntary.”

Stop the Bill

Despite work on the Bill starting in 2018, it only reached Parliament in 2022. Getting here has been slow, which researchers say is owing, in part, to the tobacco industry and its allies using the media and influencers to shape public opinion on the Bill.

When it first went out for public comment in 2018, the now-disbanded Tobacco Institute of South Africa (Tisa), a group that represented tobacco farmers and companies, launched the #TakeBackTheTax campaign.

Tisa paid for billboards, newspaper adverts and influencers – including former journalist Yusuf Abramjee, who has more than 900,000 followers on X – to share social media posts calling on the government to deal with “illegal cigarettes” before introducing new regulations. The Limpopo Tobacco Processors (the “new” Tisa) ran a similar campaign called Stop the Bill in 2023.

The Nitasa campaign repeats some of the same issues mentioned in those campaigns. They argue the rules will increase illegal cigarette sales, and lose informal traders’ business. “When someone stops at a table-top seller or spaza shop to buy a cigarette, they often [also] buy other products,” says Madikoto.

But arguments about illicit trade are a classic part of the tobacco industry’s talking points, the World Health Organisation pointed out in its recent report on the industry. According to Ayo-Yusuf, illicit trade is often driven by legitimate manufacturers which find ways to avoid paying proper taxes while producing branded cigarettes – the same companies that use it as an argument to slow regulation. 

#BeMarlboro and #LikeUs

In 2018, an investigation by global health advocacy group Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids found that young influencers, given hashtags such as #BeMarlboro and #LikeUs by tobacco companies, posted content that was viewed more than 25 billion times globally on X. They were trained to take “natural”, unstaged photos, hide health warnings on cigarette packs in their photos and use hashtags. 

One of the influencers told the researchers: “We had a training session with the person in charge of marketing at Marlboro, she talked to us about how difficult it was for them to advertise because of the laws in place […] about the brand […] even about the box and design […] how they make you link the brand to certain colours and situations.”

The Nitasa campaign, which is being posted about by around 20 influencers with followers that range from 400 to 1.3 million, is following a similar script. Some are small business owners, others are social commentators with a following of young South Africans interested in current affairs. 

Some influencers say informal traders are being excluded from public hearings on the Bill, and that loose cigarettes are the biggest-selling product for informal traders.

Madikoto told Bhekisisa that Nitasa had requested to present to Parliament many times, but was denied on a technicality. He ended up presenting on behalf of the Limpopo Small, Medium Enterprises and Hawkers Association, on whose executive committee he also serves. 

In DJ Sbu’s shared Instagram post with Nitasa, he interviewed traders who explained that they make a living out of selling loose cigarettes and will lose customers. “It’s not going to be easy for us. At least if [we sell them] there’s something you get from it; it’s better than going home empty-handed,” said one vendor.

One influencer with more than 25,000 followers told Bhekisisa they were paid by Nitasa and received a messaging pack with hashtags and statements, but admitted they hadn’t done their own research on the Bill. 

When asked if Nitasa had ever been funded by or collaborated with tobacco companies or industry groups, or if Nitasa had paid the influencers, Madikoto declined to answer. 

The full picture

But informal traders are only part of the story. 

A survey of tobacco marketing in sub-Saharan Africa, presented at the World Conference of Tobacco Control in Dublin earlier this year, found that nearly one in three South African women surveyed had seen influencers promote tobacco and nicotine products on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X. Researchers say these platforms are not enforcing their own policies banning these types of adverts, which are viewed by children and young adults. 

In 2022, when researchers looked at 29 different studies of teens and young adults, they found those exposed to tobacco content on social media had more than double the odds of ever using tobacco, using tobacco in the last 30 days and being susceptible to future tobacco use among never users. This included e-cigarettes, cigarettes, cigars, hookah and smokeless tobacco.

That’s why the World Health Organisation recommends bans on tobacco and nicotine ads on social media, including influencer marketing. If passed, South Africa’s proposed tobacco Bill will ban all advertising and promotion of e-cigarettes, including on social media and by paid influencers. Online sales of these products will also be prohibited.

Advertising laws in SA

In South Africa, tobacco laws ban the marketing and promotion of cigarettes on TV, radio and billboards, as well as indirectly through TV shows, movies or sponsored events. But they don’t cover social media influencer posts. 

That leaves the membership-based Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) as the only industry group with rules for social media advertising. It advises influencers to disclose when they are paid for a post (or receive, for example, goods) by using hashtags such as “#ad” or “#sponsored”, explains ARB’s chief executive officer, Gail Schimmel. 

The ARB code says influencers can’t rely on the defence of “it was my opinion” if they make a false claim. But, says Schimmel. “They are also human beings entitled to their own opinions, and can use their platforms as they wish.” 

Schimmel says the ARB’s relationships with TikTok and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and soon with Google, which owns YouTube, mean even if a complaint is made against a non-member of the ARB, they can alert the platforms about the false claims.

Next for Parliament

After public hearings on the Bill ended last week, the portfolio committee will now hear the health department’s response to concerns raised, and then decide on whether to proceed with the Bill or halt it.

Passing the Bill is an important step to closing the social media gap that the tobacco industry takes advantage of, says Egbe. “He’s [DJ Sbu] not promoting a tobacco product, but he’s promoting the interests of the industry.”

Bhekisisa attempted to reach DJ Sbu for comment on his position on the Bill, tobacco products, the tobacco industry and the Nitasa campaign, but he didn’t respond to requests through his bookings agent or Radio 2000. DM

This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism. Sign up for the newsletter.