[Intl-tobacco] Vietnam bans display of cig labels

[rob@essential.org]

Cigarette logos in public places go up in smoke, The Vietnam Investment
Review - B&W News Real
Source: WorldSources Online
Publication date: 2004-01-15

Cigarette logos displayed on promotional items have been banned by the
government. 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.