I forget what the laws are governing cigarette advertising in USA are, but they must be pretty strict as I don’t remember seeing much. In Thailand, smoking is banned in bars and restaurants (and generally well enforced), as is any display of tobacco in shops. Stores are allowed to display a sign that says “Cigarettes are available here” with black letters on white paper, but the actual pack can’t be visible. In addition, the packs are covered with pictures of diseased lungs, ghosts and other things meant to scare people away. In Japan virtually everyone smokes and if a restaurant is non-smoking, that is the exception and not the rule. There is a coffee shop near my apt where smoking is allowed downstairs (where the employees work), and the upstairs smoke-free area is rather smoky owing to the fact that smoke rises and there is a huge open stair-case connecting the two.

Tobacco sales are prohibited to people under 20s, and vending machines have this card reader that checks IDs before a sale can be made. The thing is, the vending machines are everywhere … making sure that people grow up being saturated in tobacco advertising.