Implementation of Cigarette Plain Packaging: Triadic Reactions of Consumers, State Officials, and Tobacco Companies—The Case of Saudi Arabia

Marwah M. Hassounah, Abdulmohsen H. Al-Zalabani, Mohammed D. AlAhmari, Afraa A. Murriky, Anwar M. Makeen and Abdullah M.M. Alanazi
Additional contact information
Marwah M. Hassounah: Community Medicine Unit, Family and Community Medicine Department, King Saud University, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia
Abdulmohsen H. Al-Zalabani: Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, Taibah University, Al-Madinah 42353, Saudi Arabia
Mohammed D. AlAhmari: Department of Respiratory Care, Prince Sultan Military College of Health Sciences, Dhahran 34464, Saudi Arabia
Afraa A. Murriky: Department of Restorative Dentistry, Riyadh Elm University, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia
Anwar M. Makeen: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Jazan University, Jazan 88723, Saudi Arabia
Abdullah M.M. Alanazi: Department of Respiratory Therapy, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University For Health Sciences, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: Objectives: In August 2019, Saudi Arabia started implementing plain packaging for cigarettes. Three months later, an opposing campaign on twitter using an Arabic hashtag “the new smoke” gained momentum amongst smokers. The purpose of this study is to document this opposing campaign’s timeline and describe consumers, government, and tobacco industry rhetoric. Methods: We created a timeline of the campaign events then performed online social listening of Arabic twitter hashtags related to the campaign. Results: Campaigners mainly complained of an unfavorable new taste in cigarette packs with plain packaging. The messaging developed to accusations to government entities and neighboring countries, and then after threats to boycott tobacco companies. The campaign received a significant amount of media coverage and elicited an official response from a number of Saudi government bodies, such as the Saudi Food and Drug Authority and Ministry of Commerce and Investment. Conclusion: This case points at a need for risk communication training, possible tobacco industry manipulation, and a need to gain consumer trust with evidence-based messaging techniques. The case of cigarette plain packaging adoption in Saudi Arabia serves as an example to other countries of potential consumer interaction, tobacco industry interference, and state official counter-reactions.

Keywords: communication; cigarettes; tobacco companies; plain packaging; standardized packaging (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2668/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2668/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:8:p:2668-:d:344969

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().