The government will ban seven brands of cigarettes and cigars that make the product attractive.
Marisol Touraine wants tobacco to show its true face: that of a carcinogenic product, unnecessarily addictive, generator of deaths, pathologies and loss of financial resources. To do this, the Minister of Health is therefore attacking one of the aspects of smoking: the attractiveness of cigarettes.
Exit, therefore, the pretty packaging with very worked marketing. The neutral package barely landed, Marisol Touraine relaunched the fight. This time, she targets brands that are attractive, that give the feeling that smoking is chic, which is obviously not the spirit of the neutral package.
Vogue, Allure, Corset …
At RTL’s microphone, the Minister announced on Tuesday that a ministerial decree soon published in the Official Journal will ban seven brands that promote cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos, and give them attributes that they do not have.
Four brands of cigarettes will be affected by this ban, according to AFP informed by the ministry. These are the Vogue, Fine, Allure and Corset. A time announced, Marlboro Gold cigarettes finally escape this measure.
In addition, three brands of cigars and cigarillos are targeted by the ministry: the Café crème, Paradiso and Punch brands. However, the targeted products will not in themselves be banned, but manufacturers will have to change the name of these brands to find another, less attractive.
Slim and organic
In addition, the terms evoking finesse and slenderness can no longer be used, referring to aromas of fruit, mint or other, the terms referring to vitalizing and energizing properties, as well as to natural, biological, biodegradable properties, adds the ministry quoted by AFP.
If the decree is to appear in Official newspaper this Wednesday evening, the brands in question will still be visible for several months. This is because cigarette manufacturers have the right to sell their products under this name for one year. The deadline is two years for other products.
If this is a laudable advance, then the studies which demonstrate the impact of a product presented as attractive on behavior are accumulating. However, to reduce tobacco consumption significantly, only one measure seems effective: the considerable increase in the price of tobacco.
Forcing the hand of industrialists
On RTL, the minister confided that the price of rolling tobacco would increase (by around € 1.50) but that the price of cigarettes should remain stable. “For cigarettes, tax increases had been voted, but companies have not passed them on, so prices will remain more or less stable,” she regretted.
According to The echoes, the ministry is considering a way to force companies to pass on these taxes, for example by increasing the “minimum collection”, a tax on tobacco that prevents manufacturers from lowering their prices.
Indeed, as the newspaper reminds us, manufacturers not only did not pass on the increase in the tax that came into force in January, but in addition, some have lowered the price of their cigarettes. One brand even offers a € 6 package while the range is between € 6.50 and € 7. “The decision has not yet been arbitrated and the budget secretariat is cautiously refusing to take sides”, specifies the economic daily.
.
