New tobacco products are popping up in different shapes and forms that were never associated with tobacco before, mimicking tea bags, breath-strips, mints, and toothpicks.
Click here to see the new products. See for yourself why the new tobacco products can appeal more to youth than adults.
The flavors sweeten the taste, so the products taste more like candy and less like tobacco. This makes the products easier to consume for people not used to the taste of tobacco. Here are some quotes from internal tobacco documents:
“New users of smokeless tobacco, attracted to the product for a variety of reasons, are more likely to begin with products that are milder tasting [and] more flavored.”
- US Smokeless Tobacco report
“Growing interest in new flavor sensations (i.e. Soft drinks, snack foods) among younger adult consumers may indicate new opportunities for enhanced flavored tobacco products.”
- Lorillard Internal Memo
An earlier version of Camel Snus came in a circular tin, like chew tobacco, but was changed to be more rectangular like mint tins. This made the imprint more discreet when put in pants’ back pockets.
Camel Orbs packaging is barely larger than a Tic Tac box.
If tobacco is made to look more like mint and gum packaging, who is the product appealing to: adults or youth?
Snus ads are found in People, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and Sports Illustrated. All these magazines have high youth readership. The ad taglines say things like:
Who do you think these messages are more appealing to? A middle-aged guy? More like a high school senior.
Here are some side-by-side comparisons of some of these products with non-tobacco products. Convinced? Check out the Do Something section to see how you can help Meltdown the lies.
Convinced? Check out the Do Something section to see how you can help Meltdown these products.
