Tobacco industry use of flavours to recruit new users of little cigars and cigarillos.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

While flavoured cigarettes were prohibited in the USA in 2009, flavoured little cigars and cigarillos (LCCs) remain on the market. We describe the evolving strategies used by tobacco companies to encourage uptake of flavoured LCCs and industry research findings on consumer perceptions of flavoured LCC products.

Methods

Analysis of internal tobacco industry documents was triangulated with data from tobacco advertisement archives, national newspapers, trade press and the internet.

Results

Flavoured LCC products were associated with young and inexperienced tobacco users, women and African-Americans. Internal industry studies confirmed that menthol and candy-like flavours (eg, vanilla and cherry) increased LCC appeal to starters by masking the heavy cigar taste,

SUBMITTER: Kostygina G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4414663 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature