Download How Tobacco Companies in China Promote Their Products Through

How Tobacco Companies in China Promote
Their Products through Cigarette Packaging?
Findings from the ITC China Survey
LI Qiang
Dept. Psychology, University of Waterloo, Canada
Tobacco Control Office, China CDC
China Tobacco Control Forum
－from research to action
Lijiang Oct. 20th 2011
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WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
• (a) tobacco product packaging and
labeling do not promote a tobacco
product by any means that are false,
misleading, deceptive or likely to
create an erroneous impression about
its characteristics, health effects,
hazards or emissions, including any
term, descriptor, trademark, figurative
or any other sign that directly or
indirectly creates the false impression
that a particular tobacco product is
less harmful than other tobacco
products. These may include terms
such as “low tar”, “light”, “ultra-light”,
or “mild”
Guidelines for implementation of Article 11
of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Preventing packaging and labelling that is misleading or deceptive

Parties shall adopt and implement, in accordance with their national law,
effective measures to ensure that tobacco product packaging and labelling
do not promote a tobacco product by any means that are false, misleading,
deceptive or likely to create an erroneous impression about the product’s
characteristics, health effects, hazards or emissions, including any term,
descriptor, trademark or figurative or other sign that directly or indirectly
creates the false impression that a particular tobacco product is less
harmful than others. These may include terms such as “low tar”,
“light”, “ultra-light” or “mild”, this list being indicative but not
exhaustive. In implementing the obligations pursuant to Article 11.1(a),
Parties are not limited to prohibiting the terms specified but should also
prohibit terms such as “extra”, “ultra” and similar terms in any
language that might mislead consumers.
Guidelines for implementation of Article 11
of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
• Parties should prohibit the display of figures for
emission yields (such as tar, nicotine and carbon
monoxide) on packaging and labelling, including when
used as part of a brand name or trademark.
•
Parties should consider adopting measures to restrict or
prohibit the use of logos, colors, brand images or promotional
information on packaging other than brand names and product
names displayed in a standard colour and font style (plain
packaging). This may increase the noticeability and
effectiveness of health warnings and messages, prevent the
package from detracting attention from them, and address
colory package design techniques that may suggest that some
products are less harmful than others.
Study Aim

To study how does Chinese company promote
tobacco product by packaging and labelling
Research method

Under the International Tobacco
Control（ITC）China Survey

ITC as a prospective study was
carried out in 7 cities: Beijing,
Shenyang, Shanghai, Changsha,
Guangzhou, Kunming and
Yinchuan

Survey started：

1st round: May-Aug 2006

2nd round: Nov 2007-Mar 2008

3rd round: May-Oct 2009
Data collecting

In the 3rd round survey（May-Oct 2009），3 tobacco
retails were selected in each city，buying tobacco products
cost less than 100Yuan/pack

Eliminated the repeated data，in total 621packs (133 brands) of
cigarettes were purchased in 7 cities

After scanning all the cigarettes packs，input the label,
description, color, pattern description, tar, CO, nicotine
data to the database. Use Photoshop to measure the
background color chromaticity and saturation

Study the main promotion methods by quantitative
analysis,using relativity analysis to study the relation
between the main background color of the pack and the tar
percentage
Research result

1. mostly there are descriptions
misleading or deceiving on the
cigarette packages, for example：

Light aroma（Huanghelou）

breeze（Xiaoxiongmao）

Ultapurified
(Nanjing,Hongsanhuan,Wuyeshen）

Treasure（Baisha）

Special aroma（Shuangxi）

Elite（Honghe, Shilin, Yunyan, Baisha,
Xiaoxiongmao）

Pure world, we together heads for
(Huangguoshu)

Long filter cigarettes (Liqun）

Pure new fashion（Zhongnanhai）

Nano-technology（Zhongnanhai）
Misleading or deceiving descriptions
Light color used suggesting low harm

Ratio of tar percentage over
background main color chromaticity
（r=0.242, p<0.01 ）and saturation
（ r=0.351, p<0.01 ）positively
related

Among 17 kinds of cigarettes with tar
percentage less than 5mg，76% use
white as the main background color

Among 315 kinds of cigarettes with tar
percentage over 10mg, only 10% use
white as the main background color

Light blue is also often used
Patterns suggesting low harm

Blue sky and white cloud

snow mountain
Patterns suggesting low harm
Font tar number

Kinds of machine testing cigarettes of
low tar number using font figures to
suggest lower harm
Font tar number
Labelling Chinese traditional medicine added

It is a unique try to add Chinese
traditional medicine into tobacco
products here in China. This may suggest
lower harm by using the healthy image
of the herbs.

Commonly used Chinese traditional
medicine including：

ginseng

Cordyceps sinensis

cistanche deserticola

gyrophora
Labelling Chinese traditional medicine added
Promotion through the image of
“enterprise social responsibility”

Tobacco companies print their social
responsibility on package

Hope project（Zhongnanhai）

Animal protection（Xiaoxiongmao）
Special design targeting certain kind of consumers
or usage

For female or youth

For leaders or as gifts
Special design targeting certain kind of consumers
or usage
Labelling the special flavor of the cigarettes

Cigarettes of different flavors are
labelled on the package, say mint,
cream, strawberry, apple or cherry

According to former survey, tobacco
products with different flavor are
more attractive to the youth
Labelling the special flavor of the cigarettes
Conclusion

Chinese tobacco companies use kinds of ways to promote the
products through packaging, most of the strategies are same
as or similar to the western tobacco companies’.

There is a unique way of promotion by the Chinese tobacco
companies: adding Chinese traditional medicine

These promoting ways are misleading or deceiving

China should adopting measures, say change into plain
package，to limit the ways of packaging promotion, so as to
protect the heath of the people
We hope that one day, Chinese cigarette packs
will be like this…
Research organizations of ITC program
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
ITC program funding source
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Core funding comes from the
American National Cancer
Institute (P01 CA138389)
External funding’s from
the Canadian Health
Institute
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