Betel nut, an internet celebrity snack with annual sales of tens of billions, even if you have not eaten it, you must have seen it everywhere on TV, in the subway, in roadside shops.
But did you know that it is carcinogenic and addictive, and is called the "fruit of the devil"?
In 2003, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recognized betel nut as a Class 1 carcinogen.
In 2017, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University announced that in Hunan, a major province of betel nut consumption, the number of patients with betel nut-induced oral cancer has increased for 12 consecutive years, and the number of oral cancer cases has increased by 7 times.
In 2019, the National Health Commission named betel nut, clearly stating that "long-term chewing of betel nut endangers oral health".
In March of the same year, the Hunan Betel Nut Food Association officially issued the Notice on Stopping Advertising. According to the requirements of the notice, the betel nut sponsorship of the Satellite TV Spring Festival Gala that year, the advertising implantation in the TV series, and the betel nut advertisement in the streets and alleys were all withdrawn.
Image source: Network
The dawn of science's triumph over profit seems to be just around the corner.
However, betel nut sales not only did not decline, but also sold better and better.
According to the Beijing Business Daily, the total sales volume of a betel nut group sub-brand has reached 800 million bales, and in 2020, it is even more rising against the market, and the sales volume of betel nut at a price of 30 yuan has increased by more than 10 times compared with the same period in 2019.
What's going on?
The answer is simple: someone is trying to sell cancer.
Not only to let Hunan people eat betel nut all the time, but also to let people across the country, let younger people, be fascinated by this carcinogen.
If it cannot be denied that betel nut causes cancer
That blurs the focus of things
"Long-term consumption of betel nut is harmful to oral health" has been a consensus at the level of the National Health Commission.
Betel nut is closely related to oral cancer, and its end result is death or severe facial deformities.
Faced with this undeniable consensus, and faced with this terrible consequence, the way for betel nut merchants is to divert your attention.
In 2019, industry associations asked betel nut manufacturers to improve the labeling of edible betel nut packaging, such as the text should be marked on the packaging bag: "Long-term excessive chewing of betel nut is harmful to oral health!"
But can you find out where "prolonged excessive chewing is harmful to oral health"?
Over here.
While blurring the truth of "harmful oral health" on the betel nut packaging, they declared on the Internet that "selected betel nut does not hurt the mouth".
Image source: A betel nut brand website
It seems that as long as it is selected, it will no longer make people unable to open their mouths, cut off half of their faces, and suffer from oral cancer.
Not only do they have to divert consumer attention from "harmful oral health", but they also have to package carcinogenic betel nuts as "health-positive".
Low-sugar betel nut with xylitol added.
"Healthy" betel nut with "goji berries" and "probiotics" has been added.
No one thought that the carcinogenic betel nut could one day rely on "health" to take advantage of marketing.
The older generation suffered from eating betel nut
Then sell betel nut to younger people
In the past decade, the production scale of the betel nut industry in Hunan has more than tripled, and the number of oral cancer patients has also increased sevenfold.
When the older generation lies in the bed of dentistry and is determined never to touch the betel nut again, who will continue to pay for the betel nut?
Of course, it is young people who are not yet addicted.
Only by allowing more young people to eat betel nuts can this business continue to prosper.
Even though there was a notice in 2019 about "stop betel nut advertising", the limelight of control has passed a little, and all kinds of betel nut marketing have once again become active.
This time, they were looking at everything that young people love to see.
Sponsor variety shows loved by young people.
Implanted in the web drama that young people love to chase.
Please be popular with young people to broadcast the stars.
Until a new group of young people began to wonder: what is betel nut? Is it tasty?
Until even primary and secondary school students began to eat betel nut.
A survey of 1305 primary and secondary school students in Xiangtan City who chewed betel nut showed that more than 60% of primary and secondary school students had already chewed betel nut, and 8% of them had already started chewing regularly.
The future of these young people and children, accompanied by betel nuts, will follow an old path: the mouth begins to pathetically, cannot taste, cannot open their mouths, cannot speak clearly, and lie down on hospital beds.
However, this is not enough to satisfy the ambitions of the betel nut.
You can't eat betel nut only in Hunan and Hainan
Make the whole country addicted to betel nut
If you want to sell cancer to more people, betel nut can never stay in Hunan, Hainan and other places. They must not only grasp the main position, but also fight a large-scale marketing war in the new city.
Offline advertising, which was once banned, is back.
This time, not only in Hunan.
Guangzhou Bus.
Zhengzhou Metro.
Wuhan Railway Station.
According to the Beijing Business Daily, in 2020, the number of cities covered by a betel nut brand increased to 596, an increase of 30% year-on-year. Marketing outlets include Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hainan, Guizhou, Henan and other provinces across the country, and the national sales terminal outlets cover more than 1.37 million.
That is, cancer has been sold to you.
Small supermarket in front of the house, convenience store next to the company... Betel nut is likely to have been put together with small snacks such as chewing gum and potato chips, completely free of any restrictions, and people of any age can buy it at will.
The above-mentioned operations may have made you feel angry and confused.
In reality, all this is nothing more than a repetition of history.
Last time, someone sold lung cancer to you
Blur the focus of carcinogenicity, focus on marketing younger people, expand the consumer population... The tricks used by betel nut are no different from the dark marketing history of tobacco.
In order to weaken the relationship between smoking and lung cancer, tobacconists have chosen to blur the focus with "plus filters", trying to convince the public that cigarettes with filters are "healthy" cigarettes and will not harm the body.
Note: Tobacco advertising claims that filters can filter out harmful substances in tobacco
This is the same as "healthy" betel nut with probiotics and xylitol.
In order to sell tobacco to younger people, they planted advertisements in film and television dramas to make the most popular stars smoke. Create a social atmosphere in which smoking is fashionable. In the 90s, there was a survey in Hollywood: 87% of the 601 blockbuster movies had tobacco shots, and the smoking footage in the movies caused 400,000 teenagers to start smoking every year.
This is no different from borrowing the mouth of variety shows and celebrities to promote that betel nut is a good thing.
The marketing of tobacco has ushered in great success for the industry, and it has become a huge business with annual sales of more than one trillion yuan in the world, and even if it wants to stop, it is difficult. At the same time, its success has also brought a huge blow to human health.
Before people knew what smoking was, lung cancer used to be a "rare disease".
But because of the tobacco epidemic, lung cancer is now the "king of cancer". Nearly 1.8 million people can be killed in a year, which equates to a medium-sized plane crash every hour full of guests.
Before people chewed betel nut on a large scale, oral cancer did not attract public attention.
However, because of the betel nut epidemic, in the study of Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, 80% of the later oral cancer patients were related to betel nut, and the patients cut off their tongues, cut off their gums, and struggled to survive.
We know that medicine may be able to defeat disease, but medicine cannot overcome profit.
It's just that if all this continues.
If the betel nut merchant still does not comply with the advertising ban, it still does not clearly label the health risks;
If you, me, we, let the betel nut ads confuse the public and flaunt them in the name of health.
Then history may play out again.
Only this time, what they sold us was oral cancer.
In addition to long-term chewing of betel nuts, many common oral problems may also lead to oral cancer. What oral problems need to be highly vigilant, and how to take care of oral cancer in order to prevent oral cancer?
We have invited He Jianliang, attending physician of the Department of Stomatology of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, to bring you a free live broadcast of the theme of oral diseases at 19:30 tonight.
Click the "Book" button below to book a live stream.
Planned by Mo Wensui
Executive Producer Putuoeer
Cover image source station cool helo
bibliography
[1] Xiaowen Nie, Discussion on cognitive factors and intervention of betel nut chewing behavior among primary and secondary school students in Xiangtan City, Hunan University of Science and Technology, 2009
[2] Yan Jia H U, Chen J, Zhong W S, et al. Trend Analysis of Betel Nut-associated Oral Cancer and Health Burden in China[J]. Chin J Dent Res, 2017, 20(2): 69 - 78.