January 2022 News and Research Roundup

Welcome to CounterTobacco.org’s “News and Research Roundup!” Each month we post a summary of the latest research, reports, and news stories on counteracting tobacco product sales and marketing at the point of sale (POS). Keeping up with what’s happening in the POS movement all across the country can help you choose policies and strategies that work best for your community. New research can help provide support for your work and evidence for the importance of the “War in the Store.” Have a story you don’t want us to miss? E-mail it to us!

New Research

Price Discounts and Retailer Contracts

Tobacco company agreements with tobacco retailers for price discounts and price placement of products and advertising: a scoping review, Tobacco Control
- This study reviews existing research on tobacco industry contracts with tobacco retailers. The contracts often require and incentivize how tobacco products are marketed and sold in retail stores, including incentivizing price discounts and promotions and dictating the placement of tobacco products and ads in highly visible locations within the store. Retailer contracts also aid the tobacco industry in targeting, for example, by requiring stores in neighborhoods with that have a predominately Black population to more heavily promote menthol products.
Follow the money: a closer look at US tobacco industry marketing expenditures, Tobacco Control
- This study analyzed tobacco industry spending on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco between 1975-2019 using data collected by the Federal Trade Commission. During that time period, while industry spending on direct advertising fell from accounting for 80% of total industry marketing expenditures for cigarettes in 1975 to less than 3% in 2019, spending on price discounts rose, accounting for 87% of all marketing expenditures for cigarettes in 2019. A similar pattern occurred for industry marketing expenditures on smokeless tobacco. Researchers note that “Local, state and federal policies are needed that apply non-tax mechanisms to increase tobacco prices and restrict industry contracts to offset industry marketing strategies.”
- Learn more about these expenditures and what they mean at the point of sale.

Disparities

Piloting a spatial mixed method for understanding neighborhood tobacco use disparities, Social Science & Medicine
- This study highlights the importance of collecting qualitative data by interviewing community residents who use tobacco alongside store assessment, retailer density, and demographic data to better understand differences in the retail landscape between neighborhoods, including how residents view tobacco retailers and how they interact with the stores in their neighborhood on a daily basis.
- News story: How understanding neighborhoods can help reduce tobacco use, Penn State News

Menthol and Other Flavored Tobacco

Association of Cigarette Sales With Comprehensive Menthol Flavor an in Massachusetts, JAMA Internal Medicine
- This study found that after implementation of Massachusetts’ ban on the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, sales of both menthol and all cigarettes decreased to a greater extent than in similar states without a ban in place. Sales of nonflavored cigarettes increased in Massachusetts to a greater extent than in other similar states. This indicates that while some people may be switching to non-menthol cigarettes, a greater number may be quitting.

Tobacco Product Placement and Advertising Restrictions

U.S.. public opinion toward policy restrictions to limit tobacco product placement and advertising at point-of-sale and on social media, Preventive Medicine
- A national poll conducted in the spring of 2020 found that among US adults:
  - 62% supported a policy prohibiting tobacco product advertising on social media
  - 55% supported a policy restricting tobacco product advertising at the point of sale
  - Nearly 50% supported a policy to keep tobacco products out of view at the checkout counter