HELSINKI — Marlboro Man lit up his last cigarette on Finnish TV screens in 1978. Soon, his smokes will be out of plain sight in stores, and selling tobacco to Marlboro Jr. may land the retailer in jail.

Finland will push tobacco sales under the counter in shops as a new law comes into effect in stages, starting yesterday. The Nordic nation, one of the first to ban tobacco advertisements, is the first to target an end to smoking through legal means.

“It’s a warning to the people who want to invest, or work in, or be a part of the tobacco industry,” said Ismo Tuominen, an official who helped draft the new law at the Helsinki-based Health Ministry. “This is a warning that we are trying to get rid of this business in Finland once and for all. Our issue is that no one has the right to kill people.”

Smoking bans in public places go back as far as 1977, and the habit has been outlawed in bars and restaurants since 2007, excluding tiny booths. The tactic is working. One in five Finns smoke daily, down from one in four in the early 1990s, Statistics Finland says. In 1998, 25 percent of men between the ages of 15 and 24 smoked, falling to 18 percent in 2008. For young women, the number dropped to 14 percent from 23 percent.

Under the new measures, selling tobacco to people under 18 is punishable by a fine or up to six months in jail. Imports will become more heavily restricted, and all sales of snus — moist tobacco placed in the mouth under the top lip — are forbidden.

The display of tobacco products and brands, including Marlboro, will be banned starting in 2012, which will force shops to sell smokes from under the counter or from closed cupboards with opaque doors. Marlboro is sold in 160 countries, including Finland, by Philip Morris International; Altria Group owns the brand in the U.S.

“I think this is a very easy and cheap way to protect children,” Tuominen said.

Cigarette vending machines aren’t widely used in Finland. They are mostly found in bars with age limits on entry. The machines are already regulated and will be fully banned in 2015.

“Maybe the biggest impact will be to stop the youngest kids from smoking, as they don’t see the cigarettes in the stores,” said Juhani Lehtonen, 18, a Helsinki high school student. “It won’t impact adults’ smoking at all.”

Not all agree the measures will stop kids smoking.

“It’s wasted effort,” said Sandra Suominen, 14, “It’s going to be a new fad with the kids — smoking will become cool.”

The new law also expands the ban to outdoor events, including football games and concerts, where smoking won’t be permitted by the audience. Hotels may designate one in 10 rooms for smokers, and smoking will be prohibited in common areas of apartment buildings.

About 5 billion cigarettes are sold in Finland annually, almost a pack a week per citizen, according to the Finnish Grocery Trade Association, whose members sell about 95 percent of groceries in the country. Finns buy their smokes from supermarkets, kiosks and gas stations.

Corner shops, like the Tabacs popular in France, are nowhere to be seen.

Tobacco sales bring in about $1.57 billion to retailers each year, and passengers import about $206 million of tobacco products, the association said.

“Changing all the displays will require a lot of work and imply a lot of cost for us,” Ilkka Nieminen, director in charge of retail operations at the grocery association, said in an interview. “There will be a lot of unnecessary hassle at the cashier unless we find practical solutions for self-service to continue.”

Changing the tobacco display units will cost retailers as much as $41 million, the grocery association estimates.