ArticleTobacco control2011
Transnational tobacco industry promotion of the cigarette gifting custom in China.
Article in Tobacco control, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The vector of the tobacco epidemic: tobacco industry practices in low and middle-income countries.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2012Pooled it
- Perceived effectiveness of four different cigarette health warning label themes among a sample of urban smokers and non-smokers in China.Tobacco control · 2023Trial
- Unraveling the complexity of associations between tobacco culture in Chinese society and smokers' outcome expectancies: a network perspective.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- Utilisation of waterpipe tobacco imagery in cigarette advertising: a case study of American tobacco company and RJ Reynolds tobacco company.Tobacco control · 2025Article
- Reframing cigarettes as social currency: A randomized survey experiment on the role of warning images and pricing.Tobacco induced diseases · 2025Article
- The impact of price and image warnings on the social perception of gifting cigarettes in China.Tobacco induced diseases · 2024Article
- Association between smoking status and health-related quality of life: a study on differences among age groups.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Cigarette Gifting Among Nonsmokers in China: Findings From the International Tobacco Control China Survey.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2023Article
- Prevalence, correlates, and behavioral outcomes of alcohol gifting in China.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Receiving and giving electronic cigarettes as gifts in China: Findings from International Tobacco Control China Survey.Preventive medicine reports · 2022Article
- Cigarette sharing and gifting in China: Patterns, associated factors, and behavioral outcomes.Tobacco induced diseases · 2022Article
- Impact of China National Tobacco Company's 'Premiumization' Strategy: longitudinal findings from the ITC China Surveys (2006-2015).Tobacco control · 2019Article
- Why are male Chinese smokers unwilling to quit? A multicentre cross-sectional study on smoking rationalisation and intention to quit.BMJ open · 2019Article
- Article
- Prevalence and Determinants of Current Smoking and Intention to Smoke among Secondary School Students: A Cross-Sectional Survey among Han and Tujia Nationalities in China.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2017Article
- Article
- Tobacco industry globalization and global health governance: towards an interdisciplinary research agenda.Palgrave communications · 2016Article
- Impact of the 'Giving Cigarettes is Giving Harm' campaign on knowledge and attitudes of Chinese smokers.Tobacco control · 2015Article
- Absolute and comparative cancer risk perceptions among smokers in two cities in China.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2014Article
- Effectiveness of a television advertisement campaign on giving cigarettes in a chinese population.Journal of epidemiology · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo understand how British American Tobacco (BAT) and Philip Morris (PM) researched the role and popularity of cigarette gifting in forming relationships among Chinese customs and how they exploited the practice to promote their brands State Express 555 and Marlboro.
methodsSearches and analysis of industry documents from the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library complemented by searches on LexisNexis Academic news, online search engines and information from the tobacco industry trade press.
resultsFrom 1980-1999, BAT and PM employed Chinese market research firms to gather consumer information about perceptions of foreign cigarettes and the companies discovered that cigarettes, especially prestigious ones, were gifted and smoked purposely for building relationships and social status in China. BAT and PM promoted their brands as gifts by enhancing cigarette cartons and promoting culturally themed packages, particularly during the gifting festivals of Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival to tie their brands in to festival values such as warmth, friendship and celebration. They used similar marketing in Chinese communities outside China.
conclusionsBAT and PM tied their brands to Chinese cigarette gifting customs by appealing to social and cultural values of respect and personal honour. Decoupling cigarettes from their social significance in China and removing their appeal would probably reduce cigarette gifting and promote a decline in smoking. Tobacco control efforts in countermarketing, large graphic warnings and plain packaging to make cigarette packages less attractive as gifts could contribute to denormalising cigarette gifting.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.