Cigarette logos in public places go up in smoke

Going, going, gone

The regulation – highlighted in the government’s newest advertisement circular – will take effect early next month.
“If cigarette logos on promotional items are found in public, producers will be punished,” the head of the ministry’s department for advertisement management, Nguyen Manh Chien, said.
“If we cannot find the producers, the tobacco firms featured on the items will have to bear the responsibility.
Manh said the MoCI was working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance to come up with appropriate fines.
Tobacco producers such as Marlboro-maker Philip Morris said they were not worried by the ban.
“We stopped delivering promotional products featuring our logos several years ago,” Nguyen Thanh Binh from Philip Morris’ Hanoi office said.
“However, we can’t control promotional products brought into Vietnam from overseas by other people who consume our products, as that kind of advertising is not banned in many other countries.”
Philip Morris entered Vietnam in 1994, followed a year later by British American Tobacco which produces ‘555’ and ‘Whitehorse’ brands. International Japan Tobacco, maker of ‘Mild Seven’, entered the market earlier this year.
Foreign producers cannot import cigarettes and must operate in Vietnam under business-cooperation contracts or joint venture partnerships with the Vietnam National Tobacco Corporation.
The tobacco industry contributed $250 million to the state budget last year, third only to crude oil and electricity.
Half of Vietnamese men smoke and cigarettes account for nearly 16,000 deaths a year, according to government figures.
Around 3.4 billion packets of cigarettes were consumed last year alone, up 300 million from the previous year according to the Vietnam Tobacco Association.
Of those, up to 400 million were smuggled in, costing the state millions of dollars in lost revenues.
Earlier this year, the government decided to cut all scenes from local films that incite smoking.