Big Tobacco looks at coffee

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

>From the Advocacy Institute's April 15, 1998 news summaries:


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Tobacco Cos. Enter Coffee Business To Circumvent EU Ad Ban

Tobacco companies plan to market a new range of coffee products
named after their cigarette brands in Europe, in an attempt to
circumvent the European Union's ban on cigarette advertising
and sponsorship.  British-American Tobacco (BAT) is testing the
project in Malaysia, where it is illegal to advertise
cigarettes, with Benson & Hedges coffee as well as a chain of
Benson & Hedges coffee shops.  The coffee concept is the
brainchild of London advertising agency Bates Dorland, which
suggested that coffee and cigarettes were associated with one
another in the mind of the public.  A source associated with the
project commented, "It's a logical step.  They are running out
of markets in which they can openly advertise.	So the thinking
is, well, 'Okay, if we can't advertise cigarettes we will
advertise another product which will have a halo effect on the
cigarette brand.' " BAT's official position on the coffee line
is that it is completely separate from BAT's tobacco interests.
 Danny St. Maria, who manages the Benson & Hedges in Kuala
Lumpur, disagrees: "Of course this is all about keeping the
Benson & Hedges brand name to the front.  We advertise the
Benson & Hedges Bistro on television and in the newspapers.  The
idea is to be smoker-friendly.	Smokers associate a coffee with
a cigarette.  They are both drugs of a type."

Source(s):
TOBACCO INTERNATIONAL, (3/1/98)
   "Beating The Ban Over A Cup Of Joe And A Smoke", p. 9

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