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Mary Ann Benitez

Cigarette makers skirt law by using brand on other products: report

Big tobacco companies are exploiting a legal loophole to get around a ban on advertising their products in Hong Kong.

A University of Hong Kong report says  a marketing technique known as 'brand stretching' - the use of tobacco brand names on clothing and other non-tobacco products and services - is being used to skirt  laws designed to protect the public from smoking-related illnesses.

The report warned that 'brand stretching' would increasingly be used by companies as more  avenues for promoting tobacco products were closed through legislation.

'[Clothes that are branded] Marlboro Classics are now advertised in mainstream media and [advertisements for] Salem Attitude shoes are seen on public transport, such as buses,' said the report by the university's Tobacco Control Research and Policy Unit.

The report said Hong Kong's tobacco-control law 'created legal options' for the tobacco companies to exploit indirect advertising.

'[This] will negate the supposed main purpose of the bill - the prevention of tobacco-induced disease - and lead to a complete reversal of many achievements in public health in recent years,' it said.

The report does not say how much brand sharing contributed in sales but Marlboro Classics reported a global annual turnover of Euro160 million (HK$1.7 billion) last year.

Council on Smoking and Health chairman Homer Tso Wei-kwok said allowing indirect advertising was 'the weakest part of the present law'.

Several studies had shown that people link advertisements for brand-sharing products with the corresponding cigarette brand, the university  report said.

It said fashion labels Yves Saint Laurent and Boss had extended their brands to include cigarettes, a new trend of 'reverse brand stretching'.

In response to the report, British American Tobacco, which sells its products in 180 countries, said it had decided  trademark diversification was 'no longer appropriate to our business'.

'Consequently, all trademark diversification activities have been wound down, resulting in the termination or expiry of licences. No new opportunities have been sought.'

No such licences are operating in Hong Kong.

Another tobacco giant, Philip Morris, refused to comment on its position but denied Marlboro Classics was a marketing vehicle for Philip Morris.

'Marlboro Classics is a trademark licensed to Valentino Fashion Group, the Italian clothing company that operates this business. This is not an advertising platform for Philip Morris International's tobacco products,' corporate affairs manager Ann Hee Kyet said.

The Food and Health Bureau said local law did not prohibit brand-sharing advertising.

'The administration has been undertaking a study of the issue of brand sharing between tobacco products and non-tobacco products, and has not come to a conclusion at this stage as to whether such brand sharing should be prohibited or otherwise,' a spokesman for the bureau said.



Tobacco firms 'exploiting loophole'