摘要：Product and marketing innovation is key to the tobacco industry’s success. One recent innovation was the development and marketing of flavored cigarettes as line extensions of 3 popular brands (Camel, Salem, and Kool). These products have distinctive blends and marketing as well as innovative packaging and have raised concerns in the public health community that they are targeted at youths. Several policy initiatives have aimed at banning or limiting these types of products on that basis. We describe examples of the products and their marketing and discuss their potential implications (including increased smoking experimentation, consumption, and “someday smoking”), as well as their potential impact on young adults. THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY HAS a long history of innovation in product development. Successful product innovations have included the introduction of filter, menthol, and low-tar cigarettes; changes in cigarette length and circumference (such as ultra long and ultra slim); and changes in cigarette packaging, such as the introduction of the 1950s flip top hard pack, to name a few. 1 Innovation in products and marketing is driven by the desire to increase market share and therefore profits. It also may be fueled by industry research into target audience needs, product preferences, and smoking practices and by the need to respond to environmental factors, including litigation, consumer health concerns, public opinion, and tobacco control regulations. Flavored line extensions of popular cigarette brands—specifically, Camel’s Exotic Blends, Kool’s Smooth Fusions, and Salem’s Silver Label—are a recent tobacco industry innovation. Although the Wall Street Journal recently called sweet-flavored cigarettes “one of the hottest new product categories in the tobacco industry,” 2 industry documents show that tobacco companies have researched and developed flavored cigarettes off and on for decades. 3 – 9 Furthermore, flavored cigarettes such as Kretek International’s Dreams brand and a variety of other flavored tobacco products existed earlier in a “flavor niche” of the tobacco marketplace. However, compared with other flavored cigarettes on the market today, these 3 products, especially Camel Exotic Blends, have been more visible, more available, and, perhaps because of their visibility and availability, more controversial. These flavored cigarettes may work as innovations intended to increase market share by both meeting product preferences of target audiences and by acting as a means of reaching desirable target audiences (namely, young people) in an environment of growing restrictions. Recent studies show that the 3 flavored products are being used primarily by young people. In surveys conducted in 2004, as many as 20% of smokers 17 to 19 years old had used flavored cigarettes in the last 30 days, whereas only 6% of smokers older than 25 were found to have smoked one of the 3 flavored lines. 10 Use was highest for 17-year-olds (19.6%) and 18- to 19-year-olds (20.2%) and lowest for smokers older than 40. 11 In terms of gender, 17- to 26-year-old males were more likely than females of the same age to use these products. Among the 3 flavored lines, Camel Exotic Blends was more commonly used than the other two. 11 These data raise significant concerns regarding the implications of these products for smoking among youths and young adults.
