It’s no April Fools. Federal taxes were increased on cigarettes today — from $28.43 per carton of cigarettes to $28.85, or $0.042 per package of 20 cigarettes. This increase was not the result of a budgetary decision this year, but because of an automatic quinquennial inflation adjustment introduced in the 2014 budget, and annualized in the 2018 budget. If…
During last week’s investor day, British American Tobacco made public many of its estimates of legal and illegal tobacco sales around the world. Combined with official reports from countries which monitor sales (like Canada and France), and with estimates from BAT’s competitors, these help give us a picture of what is happening to the global tobacco…
In a series of presentations to investors today, British American Tobacco laid out its “new purpose” and unveiled its new look. Last year it was “transforming tobacco” and “accelerating delivery”. This year the catch phrase — trademarked of course — is “a better tomorrow. The new corporate purpose laid out by BAT’s management was “to…
It’s St. Patrick’s Day today — and so this week Imperial Tobacco Canada has dressed its Vype promotions in green. “Feeling lucky?” it asks visitors to its web-site before inviting them to “Go gold.” Only a month ago — on Valentine’s day — the ads were similarly dressed for the day. Looking for romance? “Find an e-pod…
Today Statistics Canada released the first government survey since e-cigarettes were legalized — the one-time Canadian Tobacco and Nicotine Survey. This survey was conducted of Canadians over 15 years of age in November and December of 2019. It came after a long drought. Monitoring of e-cigarette use became a casualty of the restructuring of Health…
For the past several weeks, Imperial Tobacco has been ramping up its “Facts not Fear” campaign. Their clear message — as shown in a display in a local Ottawa shopping mall — is that vaping products are not as harmful as health scientists are claiming. Well, we’ve been down this road before. In the 1950s…
Last week two more U.S. states filed lawsuits against JUUL, alleging that the company has mislead consumers and asking their courts to do what their legislatures cannot — force the company to suspend certain deceptive marketing activities. This week, Canadian governments will be facing the tobacco industry in insolvency court as a result of their…
In recent months vaping companies have been warning that regulations aimed at reducing vaping will “drive people to cigarettes.” The recent “facts not fear” campaign run by Imperial Tobacco Canada, for example, predicts that regulations to protect young people from pro-vaping advertising will be “forcing consumers to go back to cigarettes.” Even some public health authorities – like…
A key challenge for health regulators when facing emerging nicotine devices is the complexity and change in that market place. Unlike cigarettes, which researchers and regulators have generally treated as identical products across geography and time, next generation products like e-cigarettes vary greatly in their design, contents and marketing from place to another and from…
For more than 40 years, Canadian smokers have been encouraged to see “Weedless Wednesday” as an opportunity to make a quit attempt, as Canadian health systems use the week around it (National Non Smoking Week) to focus efforts on helping communities abandon tobacco use. While in former decades this was a week of multiple announcements…