Elizabeth Orlan, Rachel Grana, and Mark Parascandola In early July, we authored an industry watch article JUUL from the USA to Indonesia, published in Tobacco Control. It outlined moves by JUUL to formally enter the Indonesian market, where the products were already being sold both online and in vape shops. JUUL has now officially launched […]
Category: Marketing/Advertising
The “Messi” problem of bidi branding in India
Kevin Welding The Tobacco Pack Surveillance System (TPackSS) has been systematically collecting and digitally archiving tobacco packs in low and middle-income countries since 2013. In 2016, we added the “Share-a-Pack” feature to the website to allow the uploading of packaging images by anyone around the world. In July 2018, a bidi (or biri) pack with […]
Why Tobacco Control still won’t publish tobacco industry funded work, even if the funding is laundered through PMI’s new ‘independent’ foundation
Authors: The Tobacco Control Senior Editorial Team (listed in alphabetical order): Joaquin Barnoya, Joanna Cohen, Coral Gartner, Lisa Henriksen, Sarah Hill, Ruth E. Malone, Richard O’Connor Tobacco Control has a normative focus: we strive to publish the best research that informs and advances public health and policy. In this spirit – and because of a […]
Is Philip Morris’ claim it wants to phase out conventional cigarettes credible?
In recent months, Philip Morris International has been claiming it wants to lead the push to a smoke free world and wants to work with governments towards the phase out of conventional cigarettes. The claims have been met with scepticism, but do they stand up to scrutiny? At an investor day held in late September 2016, […]
Finally, some truth in advertising from the tobacco industry
Stan Shatenstein Editor & Publisher, STAN Bulletin JTI-Macdonald is one of Canada’s big three tobacco firms. On Saturday 17 September, it ran an ad in several of Canada’s leading newspapers to argue against tobacco plain packaging legislation, which the Canadian government is currently considering. The ad is shown here: […]
New Zealand: no more ‘silent salesman’ – cigarette plain packaging passed
On 8 September, New Zealand joined a growing international move to outlaw the tobacco industry’s ‘silent salesman’ when it became the latest country to introduce cigarette plain packaging. The legislation – the Smoke-Free Environments (Tobacco Standardised Packaging) Amendment Bill was passed on its third and final reading in the New Zealand parliament with 108 votes […]
Germany: tobacco graphic health warnings to finally turn the tide?
In a welcome step forward from the weak text-only ‘smoking can be deadly’ and similar warnings that have thus far graced cigarette packs, Germany is set to introduce graphic health warnings. Despite tentative progress in recent years, Germany has historically been one of Europe’s poster children for tobacco control legislative failure. That reputation may begin […]
20 myths about smoking that will not die
Originally published as two columns on The Conversation, we bring you the definitive list of 20 myths about smoking that will not die by Simon Chapman, University of Sydney —- Across forty years I’ve come to recognise many factoid-driven myths about smoking that just won’t die. If I asked for a dollar each time I […]
E-cigarettes and children: advocates walking on both sides of the street?
Post written by Prof Simon Chapman AO Follow Simon on Twitter: @simonchapman6 —- In a 2014 open letter to the WHO’s director general Margaret Chan signed by 53 researchers, it was argued “Controls on [ecigarette] advertising to nonsmokers, and particularly to young people are certainly justified, but a total ban would have many negative effects, […]
Kerala: India’s first tobacco ad-free state
Rema Sundar, Tobacco Free Kerala Kerala has become the first state in India to become tobacco advertisement free. This major milestone for public health in the country represents strong government commitment, a favourable policy framework, accountability, and engagement by various departments to achieve robust enforcement. The first step was successfully abolishing tobacco advertisements at the points-of-sale […]