World No Tobacco Day 2003 focused on the role of the fashion and film world in fostering the worldwide tobacco epidemic and urged them to stop being used as vehicles of death and disease. The world of film and fashion cannot be accused of causing cancer. But they do not have to promote a product that does.

WHO called on the entertainment industry, in particular the world of films and fashion, to stop promoting a product that kills every second regular user. In November 2002, WHO was joined by the Smoke Free Films Project, University of California in San Francisco (USA) in its call to the entertainment and fashion industries to ensure that their social responsibility is commensurate with their global influence.

In particular, Hollywood and Bollywood -the Indian films industry in the city of Mumbai - were invited to join the worldwide movement to rid films of their tobacco-promoting role.