Thailand has long been at the forefront of tobacco control in Southeast Asia. On 8 March 2013, it took another step forward when the health minister Dr Pradith Sinthawanarong signed a regulation requiring 85% pictorial (graphic) health warnings on cigarette packs. Current pictorial warnings are 55%. The regulation is expected to take effect in approximately six […]
Category: Marketing/Advertising
Phillip Morris, a drinking competition and a death
On April 7 this year, a 29 year old man died unnecessarily. Not due to smoking cigarettes, but from consuming alcohol shots at an illegal event sponsored by Phillip Morris Fortune Tobacco Company in The Philippines. His sister Catherine Maralit has started an online petition to bring those responsible to account. She writes: “Last April […]
Does tobacco deserve trade protection?
The use of trade agreements by tobacco companies to undermine tobacco control was a key topic at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Singapore in March this year, and trade agreements are one of the weapons the tobacco industry is counting on to fight plain packaging. To ensure public health is given higher priority than […]
SPAIN: VANITY FAIR ‘RETRO’ COVER BEHIND THE TIMES
by Marita Hefler, TC News Editor Vanity Fair magazine is well-known for its iconic covers – more than 20 years ago, it caused quite a stir when it featured US actress Demi Moore naked and pregnant; a cover now widely considered ground breaking. However it seems to have seriously misjudged the times with the July […]
a wonderland of happiness
Picture a cigarette packet in your head. What’s the first thing that springs to mind? The gory health warnings? Probably not. If you have ever smoked, then no doubt an image of your preferred brand immediately pops in to your head. Even nonsmokers can easily describe the sleek and eye catching packages that expertly disguise […]
Congratulations Australia on plain packaging
Ruth Malone, Editor Congratulations to our colleagues in Australia who have just passed world class, groundbreaking legislation mandating plain packaging for cigarettes! More details will follow later in the journal’s News Analysis section, but this really is taking aim at one of the industry’s major marketing venues, the one smokers hold in their hand and […]
Your favourite BMJ journal joins the blogosphere
Ruth Malone and Becky Freeman Tobacco Control has now joined the BMJ Group Blogs – welcome to our inaugural post! Ok, ok, so maybe we’re a tad late to the party – but we’re here now and we promise to make it worth the wait. Our master plan for this blog is that it will […]