Transnational tobacco industry promotion of the cigarette gifting custom in China

Abstract

Objective To understand how British American Tobacco (BAT) and Philip Morris (PM) researched the role and popularity of cigarette gifting in forming relationships among Chinese customs and how they exploited the practice to promote their brands State Express 555 and Marlboro. Methods Searches and analysis of industry documents from the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library complemented by searches on LexisNexis Academic news, online search engines and information from the tobacco industry trade press. Results From 1980–1999, BAT and PM employed Chinese market research firms to gather consumer information about perceptions of foreign cigarettes and the companies discovered that cigarettes, especially prestigious ones, were gifted and smoked purposely for building relationships and social status in China. BAT and PM promoted their brands as gifts by enhancing cigarette cartons and promoting culturally themed packages, particularly during the gifting festivals of Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival to tie their brands in to festival values such as warmth, friendship and celebration. They used similar marketing in Chinese communities outside China. Conclusions BAT and PM tied their brands to Chinese cigarette gifting customs by appealing to social and cultural values of respect and personal honour. Decoupling cigarettes from their social significance in China and removing their appeal would probably reduce cigarette gifting and promote a decline in smoking. Tobacco control efforts in countermarketing, large graphic warnings and plain packaging to make cigarette packages less attractive as gifts could contribute to denormalising cigarette gifting.

Smoking status, nicotine dependence and happiness in nine countries of the former Soviet Union

“…As positive and negative affect are not simply end points on a continuum but, rather, as Shahab and West15 have highlighted, distinct dimensions, it is possible that they may have potentially variable relations to smoking. Moreover, tobacco industry documents show that the idea of happiness has been used in the promotion and marketing of cigarettes,16 while cigarette companies when designing brands to appeal to consumers with specific psychological and psychosocial needs found that unhappiness was linked to a greater value being attached to the ‘salience of the delivery level’ 17…”

Impact of the 'Giving Cigarettes is Giving Harm' campaign on knowledge and attitudes of Chinese smokers

“…[25–26] Gifting and sharing cigarettes significantly promotes smoking and hinders cessation efforts among Chinese smokers. [25, 27] To discourage people from gifting cigarettes, campaign messages equated gifting cigarettes to loved ones and colleagues with giving them omens that portend future diseases and death from smoking. The campaign’s novel strategy of situating graphic imagery of harm within the context of a socially engrained and respected practice warrants evaluation.…”

Gifting and sharing cigarettes in a rural Chinese village: a cross-sectional study

“…Additionally, both domestic and international tobacco companies have aggressively promoted the practice of giving both larger and more expensive gifts of cigarettes during specific holidays. For example, Marlboro and other cigarette brands have been marketed in holiday-specific packaging in China to be used primarily as gifts 11. During the Chinese New Year Festival (CNY), China's most widely celebrated holiday, cigarettes have become the most common gift 12…”