Up in Smoke

New York’s city council voted this week to raise the legal age to buy tobacco products to 21. The reason for the change - NY Health Commissioner Thomas Farley says 80 percent of the city’s adult smokers start before age 21. Additionally, New York has set the minimum price of a pack of cigarettes at $10.50 and upped the fines for illegal and untaxed sales.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg argues that these measures will effectively decrease the use of cigarettes among 18-20 year olds.

We all know smoking causes cancer yet cigarettes are still a part of pop culture and are marketed to young people. Tobacco companies, although heavily regulated, look to appeal to a young, hip generation. Will these changes help to deter young people from smoking? What implications could this potentially cause for tobacco business? Do you think these new restrictions are fair for tobacco businesses? Will this new policy have an effect on tobacco advertising’s target market? Comment with your view on this ethical issue.

Banning of E-Cigarette Advertising?

Within the US, the advertising of tobacco products (cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own-tobacco and smokeless tobacco) on television was banned in 1971 (in the UK, the ban has been in effect for over 20 years).

Within the past couple of years, however, advertising of electronic cigarettes has boomed. The advertising of so-called e-cigarettes is currently unregulated. Print ad spending on e-cigarettes has increased approximately 72% from 2011 to 2012, while TV ad spending on the same has increased approximately 18%.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to give opinions regarding the safety of e-cigarettes in October, 2013 and to suggest a ban on TV advertising as well as a ban of online sales of these devices. Online sales are expected to reach between $500 to $625 million this year (2013) with overall sales of e-cigarette reaching $1.7 billion by the end of 2013.

What are your thoughts on the potential banning of TV advertising of these products? Should there be an outright ban (similar to other tobacco products)? Should it remain unregulated? Should there be some rules regarding where and when on TV these e-cigarettes can be advertised? Please weigh in with your opinions and give your reasoning.

Overly Caffeinated?

Caffeine is a drug that many of us consume on a daily basis....in our morning cups of coffee, in our afternoon sodas and perhaps in our late night study-help energy drinks. Most of us are aware of the amount of caffeine we're taking in and have made a conscious decision to consume it. The FDA considers less than 400mg/day of caffeine to be "safe" for adults. There is no established amount of caffeine that is safe for children, according to the FDA.

There is new concern over some recently released products that contain caffeine. The reason? Because these are products that wouldn't "normally" be associated with caffeine. Waffles, syrup, sunflower seeds....sound strange? Caffeinated jelly beans?  Hmmm....

What are your thoughts on these new products? Do you think that there is anything wrong with adding caffeine to "non-traditionally caffeinated" products? If not, should there be any regulations?  What should the FDA's role be?

Making Tobacco Less Attractive. Literally.

We talked about how, in the U.S., labeling of cigarettes will change in September 2012.  The new labels will require one of the vivid health warnings to cover 50% of the front and 50% of the back of the cigarette package and to be in the upper 20% of each cigarette advertisement.  
 
There are new laws being considered in the UK that would prevent cigarette packages from being colorful and "glitzy."

This is one company's idea of what the packages could look like.  

Australia has already enacted a similar law that will take place in 2012.  "From July 2012, manufacturers would be required to drop all colour and branding logos from cigarette packets."

What are some of the positive points of these laws in the UK and Australia?  Negative points?

Can you Trademark a Color?

This question came before a NY judge a couple weeks ago.  Shapes can be trademarked - the Coca-Cola bottle shape, for example, is trademarked.  We also know that you can trademark certain color combinations - for example, the combination of yellow, red and black that Kodak uses is trademarked by Kodak.

What about a single color though?  Many of you (perhaps mostly the females and a few aware gentlemen) know that all Christian Louboutin shoes have a familiar red sole. I think that many of us would quickly yell "Louboutin!!" if we were shown a glimpse of a shoe and it had a red sole.  Is that trademarkable?  (Is that even a word?  It should be).

Read about the issue and weigh in.