China Cigarette Sales Fueled by Discredited U.S. Tobacco Strategy

Tobacco use is declining across the globe. Yet in China new data shows that cigarette sales have increased with the help of a discredited 60-year-old strategy that major U.S. tobacco companies were forced to disavow. That strategy is the marketing of “low tar” cigarettes - a misleading appeal that falsely leads consumers to believe such cigarettes are less harmful to health. Dozens of countries have banned this kind of marketing, but in China – where the government-owned China National Tobacco Corp. dominates the market – it is still going strong. This video was produced in partnership with Initium Media and funded in part by a grant from the Pulitzer Center.