Menthol marketing watch – 5/26/10

Q: RJ Reynolds has launched a very aggressive campaign in Puerto Rico for Winston Menthol’s 100’s. This includes 3 full page ads in three major newspapers in the past months. Puerto Rico would like to know:

  1. Is this happening in other states?
  2. Is there a strategic explanation for this?
  3. How can Puerto Rico react to this?

Please respond as soon as possible to aid Puerto Rico in preparing a timely response to the RJR marketing campaign.

A:

  1. New Hampshire: NH is not experiencing this.
     
  2. West Virginia: We are not seeing this in WV.

Partner responses:

  1. Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: We only track magazines that have high youth readership, not newspapers, so I don't know if this is happening elsewhere. Newspapers have a very short shelf life, so are hard to monitor.
     
    There have been no ads for any RJR-brand cigarettes in any magazines for several years, after the fiasco with the Camel No. 9 campaign. The only cigarette ads we have seen are for Newport (Lorillard) and American Spirit (Santa Fe Naturals is an RAI company, not part of RJR). There have been numerous ads, including in women's magazines, for Snus.
     
  2. National Latino Tobacco Control Network: No [I have not heard anything], but I will send this email to my contacts. The important issue is where else they are marketing in the same manner.

Related: In May 2010, The “Trinkets and Trash” program at UMDNJ launched a “Surveillance Update” newsletter, which tracks tobacco industry marketing. The Winston Menthol 100’s campaign is not mentioned in the latest issue, available at the Trinkets and Trash website.

Update from the Puerto Rico tobacco control program – June 2010: RJ Reynolds just announced that they will be closing their manufacturing plant in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. Click here to read the article.  Therefore, they may be dumping inventory. Anyhow, the ads keep appearing (Winston Menthol 100 @ $3.75 +tax). Cigarette excise tax is $2.23 per pack. The attached ad is just one of 10 that appeared in the same newspaper the same day (ad is available upon request; email tcn@astho.org).

Back to Table of Contents
 

 

contact_email