New Laws For Promotional Items Of Tobacco Companies
The draw of promotional product advertising is so strong
, that as of April of 2010, tobacco companies will no longer be allowed to put their logo on apparel items or other promotional items.
You could collect pieces from cigarette packs with some companies and use those to trade for a variety of logo items. A lot of people did this to get these products that many people thought were cool. After April though this won't be happening any more.
The reason for this change is because young people are become more interested in smoking because these products make it seem more like a cool thing to do. By stopping it from being worn by people they hope that it won't be so attractive to people that have not yet begun smoking. Even our president has said that he is a smoker and would like to stop people before they are also hooked.
The US government can see the effect of promotional products on people, especially those that are more impressionable. If those big tobacco companies can't use different products to put their logo on they will have a much harder time with getting new users. It will stop people that don't know about smoking from becoming too familiar with it.
It is interesting to see that they feel that this increased exposure to cigarette brands means you will be more likely to pick up and smoke a cigarette, and it just shows that this form of advertising is way more powerful than people accredit to it.