Cigarette giants take safety first approach: tobacco companies BAT and Philip Morris are preparing to launch 'safer' cigarettes, but advertising restrictions and opposition are already causing manufacturers problems

Marketing Week, September, 2004 by Daniel Thomas

Smokers could become less of an endangered species in the future ff tobacco companies press ahead with plans to bring to market a new generation of supposedly "safer" cigarettes.

The so-called "potentially reduced exposure products" (PREPs), long seen as the holy grail of the cigarette industry, could be only months away, according to industry sources. But there are a myriad of problems obstructing the launch, including the forthcoming ban on point-of-purchase (POP) advertising due to be implemented in December.

But the tobacco giants are undeterred. Philip Morris has argued in a written submission to the High Court that the Government's proposed ban on PoP advertising would prevent the company from communicating the benefits of its PREPs (MW last week). The...