Native owned and grown or demeaning and offensive? American Indian adults’ perspectives on Natural American Spirit branded cigarettes

IntroductionOwned by a major US tobacco company with no American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) tribal affiliation, Natural American Spirit (NAS) cigarette packs feature an American Indian warrior, thunderbird and peace pipe. The current study examined AI/AN adults’ perceptions of NAS cigarette packs in the US, which have not been reported on prior.MethodsAI/AN adults were recruited via Qualtrics national panels (n=500; 64% female, age M=39.9 years, 47% current smokers) in 2020. After viewing NAS pack images online (front, back and sides), participants were asked about NAS tribal affiliation, health perceptions and purchase intentions. Participants also wrote-in what the NAS pack logos meant to them.ResultsMost participants (65%) believed NAS is AI/AN-owned and/or grown on tribal lands. Among current smokers, beliefs of an AI/AN affiliation were associated with misperceptions of NAS being a healthier cigarette and with greater intention to purchase NAS cigarettes (p’s<0.01). Participants who did not believe NAS was grown or owned by AI/AN tribes were more likely to describe the NAS warrior logo as cultural misappropriation (17%) than participants who believed NAS was AI/AN tribally affiliated (4%, p<0.001).ConclusionsThe findings indicate a dichotomy in beliefs among surveyed AI/AN adults regarding NAS brand cigarettes. A majority held the misconception that NAS is tribally affiliated, while an informed and concerned minority characterised the branding as cultural misappropriation. The current packaging is reasonably expected to result in beliefs that NAS cigarettes are AI/AN tribally affiliated, and these beliefs may be associated with misperceptions of lesser harm.

Effects of the Adoption of Technology Combinations Beyond Standardized Systems on the Income of Chinese Tobacco Farmers

Using the microdata for tobacco farmer households in Chongqing, China, this article analyses the determinants of adopting additional multiple agricultural technologies and their impact on income based on implementing a standardized technology system by a tobacco company. In this paper, selection bias from the observed and unobserved heterogeneity was corrected using a multinomial endogenous treatment effects model, and the endogenous properties were eliminated. The empirical results show that the adoption of a variety of additional agricultural technologies was determined by famer&rsquo;s education level, years of tobacco planting, household size, number of technical training sessions, distance from farmer&rsquo;s family to the nearest tobacco technology extension station, distance from farmer&rsquo;s family to the nearest township, proportion of land suitable for machine farming, proportion of leased land. Different from empirical judgment, integrated pest management and balanced fertilization are the most effective additional technology combination strategies for increasing farmers&rsquo; income instead of combining all additional comprehensive technologies. The research results suggest that Chongqing Tobacco Company should further strengthen the training of tobacco farmers and guide tobacco farmers to take appropriate pesticide and fertilizer input beyond the standardized technical system, especially for those tobacco farmers far away from the tobacco technology extension station.

Evidence of cushioning of tobacco tax increases in large retailers in Australia

BackgroundTobacco companies may attempt to minimise the impact of tobacco tax increases on consumers by gradually passing on the price rise over several months. This study examined whether there was evidence of large Australian tobacco retailers engaging in this practice (known as cushioning) over a period including both routine indexation and large annual tobacco excise increases.MethodsAdvertised prices of nine factory-made cigarette (FMC) and nine roll-your-own tobacco (RYO) products were recorded from two stores monthly from December 2016 to December 2019. Per cent change in price from the previous month was analysed for FMC and RYO products, controlling for year, month, tobacco company and supermarket chain.ResultsSignificant main effects of month were observed for FMC and RYO products (both p<0.001). Large, significant average increases in per cent change in price were observed in September for FMC (6.51%) and RYO (11.45%) products, the month of the annual excise increase and prices also significantly increased in October (FMC: 3.01%; RYO: 1.91%). Significant increases were also observed in the months after the March annual routine indexation: by 1.10% in May for FMC products and by 1.09% in April for RYO products.ConclusionThis study has demonstrated evidence of cushioning of tax increases of FMC and RYO products in large Australian supermarkets. The monthly per cent change in price significantly increased several months after routine excise indexation and in the 2 months following a large annual excise increase. Further research with a larger sample of products and stores is needed to confirm these findings.

The Application of Philip Morris’ Litigation Prevention Program in South Korea

This article is aimed to identify the strategies of Philip Morris (PM, before its spin-off in 2003) and its affiliates in the intervention and prevention of tobacco litigation in South Korea. We analyzed 193 documents obtained from the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents. We found that PM organized and operated the “Litigation Prevention Program (LPP)” to create legal environments making tobacco litigation difficult to initiate and legal networks with local lawyers, media, and even competitors to effectively respond to such litigations. PM developed the LPP based on its legal strategies in the United States against tobacco litigation and disseminated them all around the world including South Korea. In 1999, the first joint action against Korea Tobacco and Ginseng Corporate (KTGC, today known as KT&G), a state-owned tobacco company, began. KTGC asked PM to support their litigation, and PM provided its legal strategies, such as sources to counter the plaintiffs’ arguments, through the LPP to KTGC. In front of legal threats, tobacco companies, competitors in markets, jointly fought back the litigation in Korea. Any litigation against a single local tobacco company may confront legal networks of tobacco companies. As a result, no litigation against tobacco companies in South Korea has been able to win over tobacco companies. International legal support including the development of guidelines of Article 19 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is vital for an effective legal fight against tobacco companies around the world.

Integrated mathematical model based on a heuristic method for loading and routing of vehicles: application in a tobacco company

The vehicle-routing problem (VRP) combined with freight-loading problem is a complex and relatively recent issue studied by the scientific literature. This paper presents the formulation of a mathematical model and a procedure to solve this problem in a Cuban tobacco company aiming to determine the quantity of merchandise to be loaded on vehicles and the best route to be taken. For this purpose, a decomposition’s heuristic method was used and it was integrated with multiobjective programming by-goals and mixed binary quadratic programming. This approach allowed simplifying the problem and offering a satisfactory solution based on the demand fulfillment, the vehicles’ rational use and for searching the local optimums of the traffic load indicator. The model was tested in a case study and its feasibility evaluated based on a real operational situation in a tobacco company. Although the results of the application of the developed model does not imply reaching the optimal solution to the problem studied, it represents an opportunity for company’s performance improvement and it could be adapted and applied to other institutions dedicated to the same activities.

Parle Products: The Journey of Budget Brand Toward Premiumization

Parle Products has been one of the foremost pioneers of the biscuit and confectionery industry in India. Since its inception in 1929, Parle has been synonymous with quality, nutrition, taste, and affordability in India. Having more than 40 brands across different product categories in its portfolio, Parle Products has come a long way. Due to the enormous success of brand Parle-G, the mother brand Parle has been associated with values of affordability and quality. Parle has always been a strong player in the value segment and thus customers associate all brands of the company as being the affordable brand with quality. While the industry peers such as Britannia and Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) have positioned themselves as a champion of premium segments, Parle Products is still known as an affordable or budget brand among Indian masses. Considering the increasing demand for premium biscuits among the new generation of consumers, Parle Products has introduced the new division Parle Platina in 2017. But the transformation of “value” or “budget” brand into the luxury and premium brands is not easy, as the legacy of value brand among the masses is not easy to shake off. This becomes more difficult and challenging in a highly fragmented, competitive, and price-sensitive biscuit market like India. Another problem for the Parle Products is to hit the sweet spot between the mass market and the premium demographic which the brand is currently missing out in a highly fragmented and competitive Indian biscuit market.