• advertising and promotion
• tobacco industry
• public policy

Dairy-free milk, vegan eggs, meatless burgers and…plant-based cigarettes? While the proliferation of plant-based products is most commonly associated with food and beverages,1 2 Winston’s new packaging and advertising—highlighting ‘100% plant-based menthol’ (figure 1) and ‘farm to pack’ (figure 2) cigarettes—suggest that the tobacco industry is tapped into some of today’s most popular food trends. These marketing strategies are well aligned with the tobacco industry’s history of using language and imagery that communicate reduced health risks and environmental sustainability,3–5 as well as its long-standing connections to the food industry.6 7

• Download figure
• Open in new tab
• Download powerpoint

Figure 1

Advertisement for Winston’s menthol cigarettes as seen in the October 2020 issue of Rolling Stone. The term ‘plant-based’ appears three times: in the headline, copy and image of the cigarette pack. The pack is placed next to an image of mint leaves growing in dirt. Unlike a warning written with black font on white background, small letters in white font overlaid on a textured background indicate that the product does not present a reduced risk of harm (lower right corner) (adapted from Trinkets & Trash (https://www.trinketsandtrash.org/detail.php?artifactid=15469)).

• Download figure
• Open in new tab
• Download powerpoint

Figure 2

Screenshot from Winston’s website advertising their ‘100% plant-based menthol’ cigarettes next to the phrase ‘consider it farm to pack’, a play on ‘farm-to-table’ (adapted from the collection of Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising (https://tobacco.stanford.edu/cigarette/winston-farm-to-pack/)).

The term plant-based was popularised by Dr T Colin Campbell, author of The China Study and professor emeritus at Cornell University.2 In the 1980s, Campbell needed to persuade colleagues at the US National Institutes of Health on the health benefits of a largely vegan diet without conjuring images of hippies and animal rights activists. He settled on plant-based as a clear, descriptive term that would centre scientific evidence rather than political or philosophical commitments.2 The US farm-to-table movement also gained prominence during the latter half of the twentieth century. The movement’s leaders, many of whom were chefs, sought to counteract the economic, environmental and health-related consequences of industrial agriculture by sourcing local and sustainably grown food for restaurants.8 The plant-based and farm-to-table movements have gained renewed popularity with the advent of ‘wellness’ culture:9 often promoted as a healthy and environmentally conscious alternative to red meat,10 use of the term ‘plant-based’ in food and beverage product labelling increased 287% between 2012 and 2018,2 and countless restaurants boast farm-to-table ingredients.11 Both terms now connote clean, healthy living as well as a commitment to the environment, concepts consistent with prior tobacco industry marketing, such as Natural American Spirit’s ‘Respect for the Earth’ campaign.1 4

Cross-pollination between the tobacco and food industries is not a new phenomenon. For more than a decade, Philip Morris owned Kraft and General Foods, and RJ Reynolds owned Nabisco. These companies applied existing knowledge of colours, flavours and targeted marketing strategies to develop and promote unhealthy foods and sugar-sweetened beverages to children and racial/ethnic minorities.6 7 They also examined the technology for decaffeinating coffee beans, supercritical extraction, for denicotinising tobacco.12 Philip Morris’ ‘Corporate Synergy Project’ was explicitly designed to increase company profits by enhancing collaboration across its tobacco, food and alcohol subsidiaries.7 13 Proposed initiatives included ‘the combined promotion of corporate brands…for product categories as diverse as cigarettes, beer and the various General Foods product categories…’.7 13

The tobacco and food industries use similar strategies to imply that their products have health benefits or reduced health risks. Terms such as ‘natural’, ‘organic’ and ‘additive-free’ have been shown to produce health halo effects whereby one perceived positive attribute (eg, ‘natural’) is extrapolated to other, unrelated attributes (eg, lower calorie content or lower risk of tobacco-related disease).3 5 14–18 Industry documents from the late 1990s indicate that RJ Reynolds considered using the term ‘plant-based’ and phrases like ‘comes from a plant in the ground’ and ‘naturally-grown’ to promote Salem menthol cigarettes.19 ‘Plant-based’ suggests that the menthol is not artificial, an extension of the company’s previous claims that Winston cigarettes contained ‘no additives’. Current advertising for Winston (owned by ITG Brands since 2015) appears to circumvent regulations, given that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) no longer allows the ‘additive free’ claim in advertising. Indeed, the ‘plant-based’ language may induce similar misperceptions of reduced harm or risk of tobacco-related disease, and be subject to similar restrictions.20 Although the advertisement includes requisite text indicating that the product does not present a reduced risk of harm, the manufacturer displays the statement in small font overlaid on a textured background (figure 1).

The tobacco industry’s efforts to capitalise on the plant-based movement as well as the broader ‘wellness’ culture—itself a $4.2 trillion industry as of 2017—21must be closely monitored. Given the history of cross-industry communication, tracking food and beverage industry trends may yield insights into the marketing strategies for tobacco and vaping products. As the FDA considers modified-risk tobacco product orders and violations, attention to food-related and wellness-related language and consideration of health halo effects is needed. It may be useful for the FDA and other countries’ regulatory agencies to issue guidance on broader classes of terms, rather than individual words or phrases, given evidence that tobacco companies may seek to exploit the wellness industry’s rapid growth and online presence.21 22