5.16 Products and packaging created to appeal to new users
Show / hide chapter menu
5.16.1 Confectionery cigarettes
Chocolate, sugar and bubblegum sticks made to look like cigarettes and cigars have been sold for many decades, often in packaging closely resembling that of real tobacco products.168 Probably the most widely recognised Australian confectionery cigarettes were 'Fags,' white sugar sticks with one tip dyed red to simulate a lit cigarette.
There evidence that in the early days, tobacco companies openly cooperated with confectionery companies to allow sweets packaging to closely replicate that of cigarettes. Although the tobacco companies publicly distanced themselves from confectionery cigarettes during the 1960s, it is apparent that there remained clandestine collusion,[16] the tobacco manufacturers evidently seeing some advantage in accustoming young children to playing with the cigarette-like lollies in facsimile brand packaging.168
Research from the USA in the 1990s found that children who bought confectionery cigarettes were almost four times more likely to have tried real cigarettes. This effect remained significant after parental smoking status was taken into consideration. Children liked confectionery cigarettes and tended to see them as illicit or mature pleasures; and use them as props to imitate smoking behavior.169 More recent research170 from the USA has shown that adults who had cigarette confectionery in childhood were about twice as likely to likely to take up smoking than adults who did not have the lollies. Greater use of confectionery cigarettes was associated with a higher likelihood of becoming a smoker, irrespective of possible sociodemographic confounding factors.170
Confectionery cigarettes remain available in some parts of the world170, 171 but are no longer legally sold in Australia.
5.16.2 Flavoured cigarettes
Tobacco companies have long added flavourings to their products to mask unpleasant odours and sensations, and to make cigarettes more appealing to new users.172 In the USA, flavoured cigarettes have proliferated, ranging from fruity and sweet, to spicy and cocktail.
Studies on the popularity of mainstream flavoured brands in the USA (such as those produced by the major tobacco companies RJ Reynolds and Brown & Williamson) has shown that they are used primarily by younger people,173 and that college-age non-smokers, experimenters and smokers are more likely to have positive expectancies of flavoured variants of cigarettes compared with regular cigarettes.174 This confirms what the tobacco industry has long understood: that younger novice smokers are much more likely to be attracted to novelty flavoured tobacco products than older or established smokers.175 The recent increase in flavoured brands has been attributed to the tobacco industry's need to attract new smokers in an increasingly challenging regulatory environment.173, 175
A small number of imported flavoured cigarettes are available in Australia, but their sales have been banned or otherwise restricted in some states. See Section 5.27 below. Flavoured tobacco products are discussed in greater detail in Chapter 10, Section 10.7.1.
5.16.3 Packaging
Packaging is a vital component of brand imagery, especially in countries such as Australia in which tobacco advertising is restricted176 (see Chapter 11, Section 11.6.3). Over the decade, packaging has been designed with an eye to appealing to youth, since most smokers become addicted at an early age. Industry documents show that tobacco companies have been preoccupied with developing packaging deemed to be 'new,' 'innovative' and 'fashionable.'176 The progressive introduction of health warnings on tobacco packets in Australia and overseas has been strongly opposed by the tobacco industry on the basis that they ruin pack design and infringe trademarks (not to mention discourage people from smoking).177
Packaging has also been altered to accommodate different quantities of cigarettes, smaller packs being of particular appeal to young people because they are easier to conceal, as well as less expensive to purchase. For example in 1985 and early 1986, Philip Morris launched its popular brands Alpine and Peter Jackson in packs of 15. Dubbed by health advocates as 'kiddie packs', the little packs were about half the price other, larger pack sizes at the time. South Australian research conducted soon after their introduction showed that the smaller packets were especially popular among young teenage smokers.178 Smaller packs of cigarettes were subsequently banned, but 'splittable' packs, whereby a packet of 20 cigarettes could be separated along a perforated line to make two smaller packs, similar in dimensions to an iPod, were launched by BATA in 2006179 (see Chapter 11, Section 11.6.3.1).
Laws determining minimum numbers of cigarettes per package and elements of pack design are intended to counter packaging appealing to young users (see Section 5.27 below and Chapter 11, Section 11.6.3). Health warnings on tobacco packaging are discussed in Chapter 12.
[16]As evidenced by the tobacco companies' unwillingness to pursue trademark infringements by confectionery companies. See Klein and St Clair.168
Copyright © 2012 The Cancer Council. All rights reserved.