October 31, 2009 - Federal health officials banned the sale of flavored cigarettes on Tuesday, September 22nd in its first major action since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was given authority of regulate tobacco. The FDA Commissioner, Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, was quick to point out that these flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers.
Unfortunately, these flavored cigarettes at present are not even one percent of the cigarette market. The three biggest U.S. tobacco companies say they do not produce any flavored cigarettes other than menthol varieties (but they did e.g., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco's Exotic Blends). Cloves for example was less than a tenth of one percent of the U.S. cigarette consumption.
Further action on the part of the FDA's Tobacco Center must include an expansion of the ban to include all flavored tobacco products such as cigars, cigarillos, snuff, chewing tobacco, dissolvable tobacco products, blunt wraps (The City of Boston has already banned these products). As pointed out in the FDA Parental Advisory - these kinds of flavors make tobacco products especially appealing to kids, and can lead to a lifetime of tobacco addiction.
Let's take a look at the typical convenience store (c-store) in the U.S. and the various promotions that every patron is exposed to with an emphasis on flavored tobacco products. (Recently UBS Tobacco Analyst Nik Modi noted that c-stores as a channel represent roughly 70% of all U.S. tobacco sales.) First let's look at the checkout counter where we find the big three U.S. tobacco companies: Philip Morris USA (PM), R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and Lorillard aggressively competing for every inch of advertising space. The point-of-purchase environment, i.e., the convenience store, is the main channel through which tobacco companies can entice new tobacco users and retain existing smokers. Mr. Szymanczyk, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Altria Group, Inc. has stated that Philip Morris owes their success to the ability to connect with adult tobacco consumers through the in-store experience and the development of one-to-one relationships using their database of 25 million adult cigarette smokers (Remarks, Investor Presentation, 3/11/2008).
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Below are a series of images of tobacco displays from your typical c-store all attempting to to entice the customer to give this inexpensive, glitzy stuff a try. Users of these products have told us how smooth and mild these flavored products are - you never taste the tobacco.
Click on image to enlarge..
Click on image to enlarge..
Altria's John Middleton Black & Mild Cigars are popular in urban centers across the country. Black & Mild Cigars' retail share of the machine made large cigar category is at 30.9 percent - based on 3rd quarter 2009 results. Share growth was driven (in part) by a recent successful launch of Black & Mild Wood Tip and Black & Mild Wood Tip Wine flavor. (Altria Group q3 2009 Earnings Call Transcript - keypoints..) Nearly a quarter of 18- to 24-year-old blacks in the Baltimore area smoke Black and Mild cigars. Black & Milds in Baltimore, Baltimore City Health Dept., 10/2007.
Click on image to enlarge..
Click on image to enlarge..
Skoal is available in a variety of flavors: Wintergreen, Straight, Mint, Cherry, Classic, Spearmint, Berry Blend, Vanilla Blend, Apple Blend, Peach Blend, Citrus Blend.
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Let's not forget blunt wraps - already banned in Boston. New Royal Blunt in a re-designed stay-fresh pouch comes in 10 flavors to choose from: Sour Apple, Strawberry/Banana, Strawberry, Wet Mango, Purple Haze, Blueberry, Passion Fruit, Georgia Peach, Jamaican Rum and Black Cherry.
Dutch Master Sport Honey Cigarillos - B1G1F promotion - price for one cigar 30 cents..
Our children are the future, as a result our highest priority has to be to keep children from beginning to use tobacco products. Let's ban all flavored tobacco products.
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October 31, 2009 - Japan Tobacco Inc., the world’s third-largest publicly traded cigarette maker, raised its full-year profit forecast 8 percent on projected currency gains and increasing market share for brands including Camel and Winston.
October 30, 2009 - The nation's two top cigarette-makers are boosting per-pack prices by 6 to 8 cents a pack.
October 30, 2009 - The 
October 30, 2009 - National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA) is the governing body for college rodeo competition in the United States. Collegiate competitors that perform well in the finals may be recipients of a certain amount of scholarship money depending upon how well they compete.
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco had been contributing $200,000 per year to the NIRA until the business was 
The 
October 29, 2009 - Roll-ups (RYO, a cigarette which you make by wrapping a piece of paper around some tobacco) are making a comeback, as recession-hit smokers switch from expensive cigarettes to cheaper hand-rolled tobacco.
Golden Virginia (rolling tobacco manufactured in Nottingham, England by Imperial Tobacco and sold throughout Europe), is enjoying a 15% increase in sales of the brand leader and has introduced discount brands such as 
Gold Leaf. Deirdre Healy of John Player & Sons, Imperial’s Irish business, said: “Unlike cigarettes, which are a standard size, roll-your-own gives greater flexibility to control spending by rolling a cigarette as small or as large as you like.
October 29, 2009 - British American Tobacco Plc (BAT), Europe’s largest cigarette maker, said shipments declined for the first time in almost two years during the third quarter as markets deteriorated from Brazil to Japan and South Africa. 
Cancer Council Victoria found significant improvement in the efforts of parents to keep tobacco smoke away from their kids. In 1998 just over half of surveyed households had home smoking bans, but in the latest survey just under three quarters of respondents to a phone survey said their household's regular smoker always or usually smoked outside.
Quit Victoria, titled "Cigarettes are eating you and your kids alive". The ads were copied from a successful New York campaign, and recently also screened in New South Wales.
Royal Children's Hospital pediatrician Dr Rob Roseby said smoking increases the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) and elevates the risk of contracting meningococcal disease by a staggering 700 per cent. Poisons like cyanide and carbon monoxide in cigarettes can trigger other chronic health problems including asthma, pneumonia and ear infections, he said. "Most parents who smoke know that their smoking is in some way potentially harmful to their children,'' Dr Roseby said.
October 28, 2009 - 
October 28, 2009 - Electronic cigarettes are opening a new front in the tobacco wars as state and local lawmakers try to restrict the product, which may allow users to circumvent smoking bans.
October 27, 2009 Mike Szymanczyk, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
October 27, 2009 - 
