A Premiere example of the illusion of harm reduction cigarettes in the 1990s.
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OBJECTIVE: To use the product launch of Player's Premiere as a case study for understanding the new cigarette product development process during the 1990s. We determine the (in)validity of industry claims that: (1) development of the physical product preceded the promotional promise of "less irritation"; (2) "less irritation" was actually realised; (3) advertising informed consumers; and (4) advertising regulations caused the product's failure in the marketplace. SETTING: Court proceedings assessing the constitutionality of Canada's Tobacco Act, which substantially restricts cigarette advertising. The 2002 Quebec Superior Court trial yielded a new collection of internal documents from Imperial Tobacco Ltd (ITL), including several about the development and marketing of Player's Premiere. METHOD: Trial testimony and corporate documents were reviewed to determine the validity of the industry representations about the new cigarette product development process, focusing on the case history of Player's Premiere. RESULTS: In direct contradiction to industry testimony, the documentary evidence demonstrates that (1) communications for Player's Premiere, which claimed less irritation, were developed long before finding a product that could deliver on the promise; (2) ITL did not sell a "less irritating" product that matched its promotional promise; (3) the advertising and other communications for Player's Premiere were extensive, relying on the hi-tech appearances ("tangible credibility") of a "unique" filter, yet were uninformative and vague; and (4) Player's Premiere failed in the marketplace, despite extensive advertising and retail support, because it was an inferior product that did not live up to its promotional promise, not because of regulation of commercial speech. CONCLUSIONS: New product development entails extensive consumer research to craft all communications tools in fine detail. In the case of Player's Premiere, this crafting created a false and misleading impression of technological advances producing a "less irritating" cigarette. This product was solely a massive marketing ploy with neither consumer benefits, nor public health benefits. The industry attempted to deceive both consumers and the court. (+info)
Occupational health issues affecting the pharmaceutical sales force.
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BACKGROUND: The sales force forms a significant sub-population in the pharmaceutical industry workforce. Role and organizational characteristics, such as isolation, peripatetic working and car travel and the psychosocial and ergonomic hazards related to work tasks, present particular occupational health risks. AIM: To review the occupational risks associated with peripatetic sales force work and evidence for the effectiveness of preventive interventions. METHODS: We carried out a review of the available literature between 1990 and 2003. RESULTS: The following hazards were identified as significant and worthy of further investigation for this occupational group: driving on company business; violence in the workplace; stress; ergonomic issues; and mobile phone use. CONCLUSION: To ensure effective prevention and management of employee health problems, specific health management strategies and interventions must be developed to meet the occupational health needs of this group. (+info)
Pharmaceutical promotion: don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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Spending on prescription drugs and promotion by the pharmaceutical industry grew substantially during the past ten years. Does the greater exposure offered by promotion fill a needed educational gap, or does it merely promote inappropriate use? This paper uses two recent studies to explore this question, presenting a framework in which the impact of promotion depends upon the level of evidence and consensus on drug use. (+info)
Patterns of drug distribution: implications and issues.
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This article delineates various patterns of illicit sales of drugs, especially at the retail (and near-retail) level, addressing a variety of central issues about drug sales and distribution documented during the past 30 years. including: a) the links between drug consumption and drug distribution activities; b) the various distribution roles; c) various levels of the distribution hierarchy; d) types of retail and wholesale markets; e) the association of drug distribution with nondrug associated criminality and violence. The article also will address the implications of drug distribution: whether various public policies such as supply reduction and source interdiction affect illicit drug markets, and how policing strategies and various law enforcement strategies can influence the involvement of individual participation in drug distribution activities. The overlooked contribution of treatment for "drug abuse" to reducing drug sales and distribution activities also will be considered as will other critical unresolved issues. (+info)
"Some convincing arguments to pass back to nervous customers": the role of the tobacco retailer in the Australian tobacco industry's smoker reassurance campaign 1950-1978.
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BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies and reports on smoking and health published in the 1950s and 1960s threatened the tobacco industry worldwide, which acted to reassure smokers and counteract mounting evidence that smoking posed a serious risk to smokers' health. OBJECTIVE: To document the use of tobacco retailers (1) as a conduit to pass messages of reassurance onto smokers, and (2) to recruit youth and women into smoking. METHODS: Review of an extensive collection of Australian tobacco retail trade journals (1950-1978) for articles consistent with the industry's efforts to counter messages about smoking and health, and how to attract non-smokers, particularly youth and women. RESULTS: The main arguments advanced in the journals included the notion that air pollution and other substances cause cancer, that "statistics" did not constitute proof in the tobacco health scare, and that the industry was committed to research into the causes of cancer and into developing a "safer" cigarette. CONCLUSIONS: Numerous articles designed to be reiterated to customers were published, arguing against the link between tobacco and ill health. Tobacco retailers, salesmen and retail trade organisations played a significant role in dissembling the tobacco health nexus. Tobacco retail journals may be an important component in tobacco industry misinformation strategies. (+info)
The Australian tar derby: the origins and fate of a low tar harm reduction programme.
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OBJECTIVE: To document the development of the low tar harm reduction programme in Australia, including tobacco industry responses. DATA SOURCES: Tobacco industry documents, retail tobacco journals, newspapers, medical journals, and Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria (ACCV) newsletters and archival records. STUDY SELECTION: Documents on the strategies and knowledge bases of the ACCV, other Australian health authorities, and the tobacco industry. RESULTS: The ACCV built a durable system for measuring and publicising the tar and nicotine yields of Australian cigarettes and influencing their development. The tobacco industry initially sought to block the development of this system but later appeared to cooperate with it, as is evidenced by the current market dominance of low tar brands. However, behind the scenes, the industry used its substantial knowledge advantage regarding compensatory smoking and its ability to re-engineer cigarettes to gain effective control of the system and subvert the ACCV's objectives. CONCLUSIONS: Replacement of the low tar programme with new means of minimising the harms from cigarette smoking should be a policy priority for the Australian government. This will require regulation, rather than further voluntary agreements, and stringent monitoring of successor programmes will be necessary. (+info)
From legitimate consumers to public relations pawns: the tobacco industry and young Australians.
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OBJECTIVE: To document the Australian tobacco industry's activities regarding youth smoking to support tobacco control. METHOD: 492 industry documents from primary and secondary websites were abstracted and analysed. RESULTS: Australian legislation and rhetoric on youth and tobacco has changed dramatically over the last 50 years, from an unproblematic association of teenagers and smoking in the 1960s, through the industry's aggressive attacks and denials in the 1980s, to the 1990s, when industry became newly compliant with "societal expectations" and youth became a dominant bargaining issue in the industry's public relations strategy. The industry's current policy is to simultaneously blame others for underage smoking, frame the industry as socially responsible via voluntary marketing codes, youth access programmes, and school education, and market actively to young adults. CONCLUSIONS: The arbitrary distinction between 17 and 18 year olds is, particularly in Australia's dark market, a liability for tobacco control and an opportunity for the industry, which is attempting to claim the high moral ground traditionally occupied by tobacco control on the youth issue. The current review of Australia's Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act of 1992 should prohibit all forms of industry communication targeting young people, including retail access and schools programmes and below-the-line marketing. Tobacco control advocacy should highlight the industry's attempts to use the youth issue in its own favour while laying the blame elsewhere. (+info)
The Australian cigarette brand as product, person, and symbol.
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OBJECTIVE: To examine, for dominant Australian cigarette brands, brand identity (overriding brand vision), brand positioning (brand identity elements communicated to the consumer), brand image (consumers' brand perceptions) and brand equity (financial value). DESIGN: Tobacco industry documents, articles from retail trade publications since 1990, and current brand advertising from retail trade publications were searched for information about Australian brands. RESULTS: Cigarette manufacturers benefit from their competitors' brand equity as well as their own. The industry sees Australian smokers as far less brand loyal and strongly oriented to "low tar". A few predominantly local brands dominate the market, with variation by state. Successful Australian brands exist in one of three categories: premium, mainstream, and supervalue. Their brand identity essence is as follows. Premium: quality. Mainstream: a good humoured "fair go" for ordinary Australians. Supervalue: value for money. All supervalue brand identities also include freedom, escape, mildness, an aspirational attitude, blue tones, and waterside scenes. Brand image and brand identity is frequently congruent, even when marketing is restricted, and brand image is generally more positive for a smoker's own brand. CONCLUSIONS: Tobacco control activities have undermined cigarette brand equity. Further research is needed regarding brand loyalty, low tar, and brand categories. Smokers may respond more positively to tobacco control messages consistent with the identities of their chosen brand, and brand-as-organisation elements may assist. Further marketing restrictions should consider all elements of brand identity, and aim to undermine brand categories. (+info)