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ASH Daily News

1 November 2001

Headlines


Marlboro is top brand
BAT launches new UK brand
Tobacco advertising


Full Text

Marlboro is top brand

Several newspapers report on a first-ever ranking of the world’s top selling consumer packaged goods. From cigarettes to soft-drinks, pampers to pet food – all manner of brands have attained global markets and loyalty and hence a position on the unprecedented list.

AC Nielsen, the market research company that compiled the data, predicted that the number of global brands would rise sharply over the next few years as big corporations ratcheted up their efforts to gain global scale.

Unsurprisingly, the world’s top two leading brands were Coca-Cola and Marlboro, both commanding annual sales of over $15bn. However, many thought it unexpected to see two other cigarette brands in the list of top ten products: Benson and Hedges and Camel. These two brands raise between $2bn and $3bn for their companies annually.



BAT launches new UK brand

British American Tobacco yesterday took on rival Philip Morris by launching its first cigarette brand in Britain for more than a decade. Presiding over strong quarterly figures, BAT is introducing State Express 555 through its Rothmans' company backed by a £12m marketing campaign.

The move comes after BAT was forced to hand over the British rights to Marlboro back to Philip Morris, the world's number one cigarette firm, in the summer following a defeat in the high court.

The new cigarette brand marks a step change for a tobacco group which has previously focused on the value for money sector in the UK. It is hoped the product would boost UK margins, which have been battered by the highest excise charges in Europe, the company said.

Full Story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,583813,00.html
Source: Guardian Unlimited, 1 November 2001


Tobacco advertising

The president of the Royal College of Physicians, and other distinguished colleagues including Dr Paul Nurse, Nobel Laureate for work in medicine, in a letter to the Times yesterday called on the government to ban tobacco advertising.

Today, writing to the Times, a certain Dr Robert M H Lefever challenges their opinion and the validity of estimates made by the Government on the number of lives that could be saved if a ban on tobacco advertising was affected.

For those who don’t know the figures, even cautious estimates by the Department of Health indicate that in the absence of tobacco advertising, consumption would fall by 2.5% - the equivalent of 3000 lives being saved which are currently lost due to smoking related illnesses.

Dr Lefever brands these figures as ‘moonshine’. Quite a strong argument.

Source: The Times, 1 November 2001



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