Tobacco Product Marketing: Trends in Packaging and Retailing

Audience: Attendees interested in historical and current trends in product development, marketing, future regulation of new tobacco products, and recent research on plain packaging.

Key Points: Tobacco products have evolved in their constituency and subsequent marketing over time. This evolution is designed to enhance use. Having a clear understanding of this history and the strategy behind it will inform tobacco control specialists in efforts to develop regulatory science to support and implement policy regarding new products. This is especially timely considering new products post June 2012 must be approved for sale as such.

Educational Experience: The goal of this session will be to provide a historical timeline of tobacco products and product modifications. It will serve to educate participants about evolving trends in product development, packaging and retail marketing. Presenters will discuss the crucial issues surrounding FDA regulation of new products engaging attendees with questions like: what new products will be allowed into the market and how they will be designed, labeled and sold? This is perhaps the biggest challenge to tobacco control since the British Physicians study provided convincing statistical evidence linking tobacco use with lung cancer.

Benefits: Attendees will be able to describe the evolution model of the cigarette from 1900 to 2000 and the emergence of new tobacco products as part of a system to enhance abuse at the individual and population level. Attendees will also be able to describe research surrounding plain packaging and identify potential local, state & federal strategies to limit the impact of tobacco marketing.