Strategies to expand corporate autonomy by the tobacco, alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverage industry: a scoping review of reviews.

BACKGROUND: Noncommunicable diseases contribute to over 70% of global deaths each year. Efforts to address this epidemic are complicated by the presence of powerful corporate actors. Despite this, few attempts have been made to synthesize existing evidence of the strategies used to advance corporate interests across industries. Given this, our study seeks to answer the questions: 1) Is there an emergent taxonomy of strategies used by the tobacco, alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) industries to expand corporate autonomy? 2) How are these strategies similar and how are they different? METHODS: Under the guidance of a framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley, a scoping review was carried out whereby six databases were searched in June 2021 to identify relevant peer-reviewed literature. To be included in this review, studies had to explicitly discuss the strategies used by the tobacco, alcohol, and/or sugar-sweetened beverage multinational corporations and be considered review articles aimed to synthesize existing evidence from at least one of the three industries. Eight hundred and fifty-eight articles were selected for full review and 59 articles were retained for extraction, analysis, and categorization. RESULTS: Results identified six key strategies the industries used: 1) influencing government policy making and implementation, 2) challenging unfavorable science, 3) creating a positive image, 4) manipulating markets, 5) mounting legal challenges, and 6) anticipating future scenarios. Despite these similarities, there are few but important differences. Under the strategy of influencing government policy making and implementation, for example, literature showed that the alcohol and SSB industries have been "privileged with high levels of participation" within international public health organizations. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding how industries resist efforts to control them is important for public health advocates working to reduce consumption of and death and diseases resulting from harmful commodities. Moreover, there is a greater need for the public health community to generate consensus about how to ethically engage or not engage with industries that produce unhealthy commodities. More studies are also needed to build the evidence base of industry tactics to resist regulation, particularly in the case of SSB, and in low-and middle-income countries.

Availability and advertising of electronic cigarettes in two Russian cities following implementation of comprehensive tobacco advertising restrictions.

INTRODUCTION: Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) continue to gain popularity globally. Jurisdictions with comprehensive tobacco control policies, which limit the use and availability of combustible tobacco products but do not regulate e-cigarettes (as in Russia), may be vulnerable to the expansion of the e-cigarette market. METHODS: Using McNemar's test conducted in STATA, this observational study assessed changes between 2014 and 2016 in the availability of e-cigarettes across 239 retail outlets in Moscow and St Petersburg. Also, this study characterized the presence of retail advertising and promotion of e-cigarettes in 2016. RESULTS: Between 2014 and 2016, the availability and display of e-cigarettes increased within traditional tobacco product retail venues (27.6% in 2014 vs 51.9% in 2016; p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Observations indicate that there has been an increase in the proportion of retailers selling and displaying e-cigarettes.

"Decide Now, Buy Marlboro": Examining the influence and appeal of Marlboro's new brand architecture among Filipino adolescents.

In recent years, Philip Morris International (PMI) launched a global rebranding strategy to expand the reach of Marlboro. Using a mixed-methods design, this study evaluated the appeal and influence of Marlboro advertising among Filipino youth. Six hundred and twenty-three adolescents aged 13-17 years old in Metro Manila participated in a survey, including three advertising conditions: two for Marlboro and one for Mighty, a local cigarette brand. One-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and paired t-tests evaluated differences between the three conditions on participants' attitudes toward advertisements [measured as identification, likeability, and perceived effectiveness (PE)]. Compared to Mighty, never-smokers rated Marlboro advertisements as more identifiable and likeable. Comparing by smoking status (never vs. ever), multivariable logistic regression assessed the influence of these attitudes on intention to smoke. Increased likeability was associated with greater intention to smoke among never-smokers, and greater PE increased odds of intention to smoke for both never- and ever-smokers. Additionally, six focus group discussions (FGD) explored responses to campaign messaging. Themes were compared within and across groups. Marlboro was also appealing to FGD participants, who described the ads as attractive to youth and promoting "adventure" and "freedom", whereas the Mighty brand was seen as being for adults and current smokers. Our findings illustrate that Marlboro advertisements are distinctly appealing to youth. Marlboro rhetoric - where consumers are urged to "decide" to "Be Marlboro" - was particularly powerful. These findings support the need for addressing gaps in policies regulating the marketing and promotion of tobacco in the Philippines.