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L&M’s foray into marketing ‘natural’ cigarettes
  1. Stefanie K Gratale1,
  2. Ollie Ganz1,2,
  3. Eugene M Talbot1,
  4. Jennifer L Pearson3,
  5. Cristine D Delnevo1,2,
  6. Olivia A Wackowski1,2
  1. 1 Center for Tobacco Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
  2. 2 Department of Health Behavior, Society and Policy, Rutgers School of Public Health, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA
  3. 3 Department of Health Behavior, Policy, and Administration Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Olivia A Wackowski, Center for Tobacco Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA; wackowol{at}sph.rutgers.edu

https://doi.org/10.1136/tc-2022-057770

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    The cigarette brand L&M appears to be piloting new marketing in the USA that notably changes its packaging and point-of-sale (POS) advertising. A key transformation is L&M’s implicit positioning as an affordable yet premium natural brand, with an emphasis on cigarette composition. The new L&M packs have been spotted among Reddit users in multiple US regions as early as February 2022.1 2

    The new tagline on L&M packs is ‘Simple tobacco’,1 with POS ads heralding ‘Simple ingredients’ (figures 1 and 2). Packs and POS ads also specify, ‘tobacco ingredients: tobacco and water’, connoting a simple, natural composition. The pack design features a single leaf in blue, yellow, orange, or green, evoking nature themes with tones reminiscent of water, sun, nature, and earth. The new terminology and visuals are distinct from traditional L&M packs featuring block colours with the L&M logo (figure 2), which, as of January 2023, are still featured on the brand’s website, suggesting the new design is not yet fully launched.

    Figure 1

    L&M pilot cigarette packaging.

    Figure 2

    L&M pilot point-of-sale advertising.

    L&M’s new marketing is consistent with the brand’s positioning as a premium yet affordable product, maintaining a previous tagline that …

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    Footnotes

    • X @owackowski

    • Contributors SKG and OG contributed to paper writing and editing. EMT, JLP, CDD and OAW contributed to paper editing.

    • Funding Funding for SKG, OG, ET, JLP, CDD and OAW was provided by NCI and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (under U54CA229973). OG was also supported in part by the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey (under P30CA07270-5931). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the National Institutes of Health or FDA.

    • Competing interests JLP is a paid expert witness for the plaintiffs in a multidistrict litigation involving Natural American Spirit cigarettes.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.