I apologize in advance if some of my statements might seem inappropriate for some people who may have had issues with cigarette marketing before, it is in no way meant to be offensive.

Alright so let’s begin. A recent Quebec coalition is being formed to create a law to ban life-style advertising on cigarette packages. They are asking the Quebec Health Ministry to impose bans against life-style advertising on consumer products that affect health (which is pretty much directly aimed at the Quebec Smoking Law). They are also asking to create a neutral packaging for ALL cigarette brands (French article) to not influence consumers to choose/buy one specific brand because of what it looks like. That’s ridiculous. That’s like saying you should only have one type of bottle for all Rhum brands, so brands like Captain Morgan and Bacardi (both aiming at different types of market) should stick to the same packaging.

Now this is what I don’t understand. Vogue (British American Tobacco – super premium brand selling in more than 55 countries. Key markets include Russia, South Korea, France, Poland and Japan) have been around for quite some time now. They have established a key market aiming women (of legal age) and are using one of the strongest Fashion brands worldwide as it’s name. Now as it is just recently being introduced in the Quebec Market as a premium cigarette, we directly push to ban the hell out of the brand as if we were any different than the other countries that have had the cigarette brand for decades. We have to remember that we are one of the only places in the world where we (identifying myself as a part-time/social smoker) have to stick with having a disgusting photo of old yellow teeth every time we go to grab a cigarette or even worst, those bleeding black lung photos. Although this tactic might help some people quit smoking by scaring them, some just don’t care, they love to smoke.

We live in a capitalist and advertising Country (especially in Montreal) and in no way tobacco companies should be obliged to remove a brand because of the packaging (unless stating that it’s healthy for you, as they once did 50 years ago). Smoking is a trend, it’s a life-style, sometimes an addiction, let people decide what cigarettes they want to purchase and smoke.