26 mars 2009
Black Russian
The Black Russian campaign seeks to create a classy image. One print ad shows a Black Russian cigarettes against a black background. The eye is drawn first to the gold trim, which makes a viewer think it's a picture of a gold bar. On closer inspection, people can see it's a cigarette. The tagline: "The finest quality since 1879."
A spot breaking in the next month or so will feature a black chess set against a black background, where a gold cross on the king stands out. The chess imagery is meant to evoke Russian identity, luxury and intellectualism, says Graham Mills, executive creative director for Arc London, a Publicis Groupe unit that worked on the campaign.
Russia prohibit tobacco advertising on television and daytime radio but allows it on radio at night, on the inside pages of magazines, and in posters on sites that aren't within 100 meters of a school, according to ZenithOptimedia. Britain by contrast is instituting a ban on print and poster advertising this month; it already bans tobacco ads on TV. The European Parliament recently endorsed a ban on most tobacco publicity as well.
"Russia, relative to other European markets, is the Wild West in terms of what's permitted in advertising and promotion," says Martin Steinik, a tobacco analyst at J.P. Morgan Chase in London.
18 juillet 2008
Menthol the bait to trap smokers, researchers say
Hoping to lure a new generation of smokers, tobacco companies
routinely manipulate levels of menthol so that their cigarettes prove more
appealing and less harsh to novice users, Boston researchers reported
yesterday.
Scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health scoured thousands of pages of industry documents from the 1980s through 2006 and commissioned laboratory tests of cigarettes to confirm a long-suspected link between menthol levels and marketing strategies.
The researchers found that tobacco companies embrace a
Goldilocks approach when launching brands: Add too little menthol, a chemical
that has an effect akin to anesthesia, and tobacco retains its intense bite.
Add too much, and first-time smokers are overwhelmed. Add just the right amount,
and cigarettes become powerfully seductive.
A 1987 internal memo from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., maker of the Salem brand, which uses menthol, summarized the benefits of low-level menthol cigarettes: "Smoother, more refreshing tobacco taste." Such a product, the memo said, would be a "proven winner" among 18- to 24-year-olds.
Once hooked, the documents show, smokers require increasing
levels of menthol to maintain the same cooling effect. Cigarette makers, in
turn, respond with brands that contain more of the additive, the Harvard
scientists said.
Representatives of large tobacco companies decried the study, with Lorillard Tobacco Co., maker of Newport and other menthol products, saying in a statement that the firm "does not control levels of menthol to promote smoking among adolescents and young adults."
A spokesman with the nation's largest cigarette maker, Philip
Morris
The findings, published online by the American Journal of
Public Health, arrive at a critical moment, as Congress is close to giving the
Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco. Those rules would
not explicitly ban menthol, something that has deeply divided public health
advocates.
Stanton Glantz, a professor at the University of California at
San Francisco, said the Harvard study shows a willful pattern of action by
tobacco companies that can only be remedied by a federal ban.
"As you always find when you go digging into the industry
documents, the companies are very smart and very thorough and don't do anything
by accident," Glantz said. "This is a very important element of
cigarette marketing and design."
Smoking - which is linked to cancer, heart disease, and other
ailments - kills more than 400,000 Americans a year and is the leading cause of
preventable death in the United States.
Scientists not involved with the Harvard study hailed it as a
landmark piece of research, sketching the richest portrait ever of the
industry's use of menthol to attract consumers. Dr. Michael Siegel, a
tobacco-control researcher at Boston University School of Public Health, said
it "really demonstrates that menthol is playing a major role in
maintaining cigarette consumption and especially in recruiting and supporting
addiction among youth and young adults."
02 juin 2008
Mobiles and Cigarettes
Mobiles and Cigarettes refers to the many similarities that I have noticed over this time. Many similarities become obvious as one thinks about the comparison. A phone is compared to the collection of individual cigarettes, the pack and also the matches or lighter.
Topics covered include sociology of cigarette use, social shaping of health scares, industrial structure and political influence, advertising, cultural images, gender and age issues etc.
Phones have replaced cigarettes as the thing people fiddle with
* When nervous, waiting for a to meet or hear from someone, or trying not to look out of place
* They are a distraction from loneliness, insecurity, nervousness
They are used to fill time waiting
* smoking or calling when waiting for the bus
We often have to go outside a building or room to use them.
* We cannot get reception, or, as with cigarettes, we are not allow by explicit or implicit rules to use them indoors.
* The little crowd of smokers and phoners is a common sight. However smokers are united by their activity, phoners separated.
They are displayed in public places
* When put on the table in a pub or café they have brand and model status
* They must be near at hand - for the next call or next smoke.
* A group of smokers all get out their cigarettes packs and put them of the table when the sit down. Phoners do the same thing.
They are associated with certain stereotypes
* The socially successful - the peron everyone wants to know.
* E.g. the sophisticated business person/socialite (advertisers preferred)
* E.g. beautiful people having fun
* Actually used by: many people
* The spotty teenager on the bus
They are used in characteristic ways by different people
* Discretely, hidden in hand, back turned
* Elbow stuck out the side - characteristic of overweight lorry drivers, to use a blatant stereotype!
* If you use two at the same time you probably have a problem.
They are lent and borrowed
* Friends think nothing of letting each other make calls or cigarettes.
* Except when there are hardly any left.
* One person with a phone or pack is enough for a whole group on an outing.
They are seen as antisocial in many public or social contexts
* They both annoy other people around the user.
* There are social codes about when it is appropriate to use
* Those that control social spaces make rules to restrict anti-social behavior, especially banning use, or restricting to certain areas. See below.
They are highly social
* They are an essential part of flirtation
* They are a point to start conversation
* They are used to note phone numbers
Teenagers want them
* Use them to show off/build identity
* They are often one of the few personal possessions of young people.
* Starting smoking and getting a mobile phone, were/are important boundary markers in growing up
* They make/made up a key part of youth culture.
* They can be subversive.
* They are banned in schools (phones), smoke
* Catch 'em young
Their use is banned in many of the same places because of social interference or technical interference, or danger of fire.
* Theatre
* Hospital
* Railway carriages (smoke, phones)
* Petrol stations
* Parliament
They can cause fires - (phones by explosion)
Actually there is no evidence for this with phones, but that does not put off certain 'licensing authorities' from banning them on these grounds, such as in European filling stations.
They have highly disputed health issues.
* There are government studies
* Corporate denials
* Hidden patents and research
* There is a whole range a device to make them 'safer'
* Companies do not like to advertise 'safer' versions as that implies existing versions are dangerous
* Heavy users and children are most at risk
They are dangerous to use when driving
* One takes ones eyes and mind off the road to initiate use, and to hold them
* They both use the in car power socket
* Arkansas has banned smoking in cars with young children
There are important 'class' issues over use
* Different parts of the population prefer different brands
* Nokia - teen, young, more female
* Ericsson - company people, engineers, boring men
* Motorola - more sophisticated
Smaller versions are
* More feminine (packs of cigarettes )
* More discrete
* Are for lighter users (number of cigarettes, battery size, functions)
Gender differentiating in branding and design
They both are associated with small pictures of popular culture
- Logos, cigarettes cards
You go to the newsagent/tobacconist to buy them
They have similar industrial characteristics
* The industries both have huge political lobbies
* They contribute lots of revenue to governments though tax
* The industries are both highly regulated
* The industry is made of multinationals
* The growth markets are in the developing world
* In developing countries tobacco and telecoms have often been state enterprises
25 avril 2008
China-tobacco joint venture set up in Pyongyang
PYONGYANG -- With four million euros (6.36 million U.S. dollars) of investment, a cigarettes and tobacco joint venture by China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was setup here Wednesday.
The joint venture, Pyongyang Paeksan Tobacco Ltd., a fruit of the increasing China-DPRK friendship and economic cooperation, would meet the needs of the DPRK people, DPRK's Vice Minister of Light Industry Cho Chong Ung said.
Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Liu Xiaoming said cooperation with DPRK enterprises will benefit the people of both countries and the Chinese government will continue to support its enterprises to "go abroad."
11 avril 2008
Imperial Tobacco Canada reaffirms its youth smoking prevention commitment
MONTREAL, - Imperial Tobacco Canada reaffirmed its
position that, as a responsible tobacco company, it does not target minors
through direct or indirect marketing.
"This position is fundamental to how we run our business," said Benjamin
Kemball, president and CEO of Imperial Tobacco Canada. "It is stated in black
and white in our business principles and is lived by every one of Imperial
Tobacco Canada's employees."
Imperial Tobacco Canada's marketing practices are aimed at encouraging
adult smokers to choose our brands over those of our competition. The Company
complies with all Canadian regulations (as well as with British American
Tobacco International Tobacco Products Marketing Standards which are a set of
voluntary standards accepted by British American Tobacco group companies).
Imperial Tobacco Canada does not produce or sell cigarillos or flavored cigarettes, except mentholated products.
"The bottom line is kids should not be smoking. Governments, retailers
and tobacco industry need to work together to address this issue and implement
practical solutions," said Mr. Kemball.
"However, all the goodwill in the world will not do any good if the
illegal tobacco trade is left unchecked. Canadian children have easy access to cigarettes at pocket money prices. We can be sure that the criminals who
traffic in illegal tobacco are not asking for proof of age," concluded
Mr. Kemball.
A recent study conducted by the Arcus Group showed that 30 percent of the
11,267 cigarette butts collected from 105 sites in Quebec and Ontario were
found to be "illegal".