International Resource Center

Advocates clad in pink robes danced in a public square in Kyiv, Ukraine to expose the tobacco industry's aggressive marketing tactics aimed at women and to gain support for draft total advertising ban legislation.

In conjunction with that,     

They also released the results from a national public opinion poll revealing that men find women smokers less attractive than non-smokers.

After the press conference, journalists were invited to attend the "Dance of the Pink Death" in which actors dramatically demonstrated the deadly effects of tobacco use on women.

After the event, the actors and volunteers took to the streets of Kyiv to speak to the public about the dangers of smoking.

The tobacco industry in Ukraine and around the world has a well-established history of developing cigarette brands and marketing campaigns depicting cigarette smoking as feminine and fashionable, with devastating consequences for womens' health.

Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of women and smoking puts women and girls at greater risk of a wide range of deadly diseases including heart attacks, strokes, emphysema and numerous cancers.

Governments can curtail the tobacco industry's most harmful practices and its devastating effects on health by banning misleading health claims such as "light" and "low-tar" and requiring larger, more effective health warnings on tobacco products and advertising.