RICHMOND, Va. — Goodbye, Marlboro Lights. Hello, Marlboro Gold Pack.
“Light” cigarettes are going up in smoke by the end of June, but their names and packaging are getting a colorful makeover.
The Food and Drug Administration says cigarette packs no longer can feature names such as “light,” “mild,” “medium” or “low,” which many smokers wrongly think are less harmful than “full-flavor” cigarettes.
Cigarette makers are replacing those words with colors such as gold, silver, blue and orange on brands that make up more than half of the smokes sold across the country.
Anti-tobacco advocates say the colors are just as bad as the words, but tobacco companies argue they have a right to let smokers know which products are which.
Companies insist the words tell smokers about the taste, feel and blend of a cigarette, not health risks. The cigarettes usually feature different filters and milder-flavored blends.
Long years of advertising, however, emphasized measurements of lower tar and nicotine in “light” cigarettes, even though those were measured with smoking machines that don’t mirror how real smokers puff. For example, smokers will inhale more deeply or smoke more cigarettes if they’re not getting the amount of nicotine they want.
Studies show that about 90 percent of smokers and nonsmokers believe that cigarettes described as “light” or that have certain colors on the packages are less harmful even though “all commercial cigarettes are equally lethal,” said David Hammond, a health behavior researcher at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
More than 40 countries already have laws prohibiting terms similar to what the FDA is banning.
Other countries are considering going even further. The Australian government proposed legislation last month that would make manufacturers sell cigarettes in plain, standard packaging, without colors and logos.
