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title: Note for Tobacco brands and kids and it's effect

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# Candy cigarettes and their hidden effect on kids

## Introduction
My parents sent me a package from Japan, containing snacks and candy, and it contained candy shaped like cigarettes, named "Cocoa Cigarette", which I remembered is sold at every candy section in Japanese supermarkets, next to other candies for kids. Which made us curious what effect it has on kids ?
*Exact same candy sent from Japan*

## History of candy cigarette
- We can see early examples of candy cigarettes in the late 19th century, which was made out of chalky sugar, bubble gum or chocolate, wrapped in paper and packaged and branded so as to resemble cigarettes. Some products contain powdered sugar hidden in the wrapper, allowing the user to blow into the cigarette and produce a cloud of sugar that imitates smoke, which comes out of the other end.

- After the 1964 Surgeon General's report on smoking and health criticized candy cigarettes for "trying to lure youngsters into the smoking habit", tobacco companies began to distance themselves from candy cigarettes.
- By 1997-8, candy cigarette packs no longer exactly duplicated particular cigarette brand names, but design features resembling cigarette packs persisted

- In America it was reported erroneously in 2010 that the *Family Smoking and Prevention Control Act* bans candy cigarettes.

- These days, a lot of countries such as Australia, Brazil, UK, Denmark, ban candy cigarettes.
- After the ban, many manufacturers now describe their products as candy sticks, bubble gum, or simply candy.
## Candy cigarette and tobacco industries
- Tobacco companies and candy cigarette manufacturers have worked together to make candy cigarettes, candy cigarettes can also serve as a way to market cigarettes to children, as many candy cigarettes have branding nearly identical to cigarette brands. Tobacco companies have allowed candy cigarette companies to use their branding.
- For example, in the US, there are 2 major producers of candy cigarettes, Stark(acquired by New England Confectionery) and World Candies. New England Confectionery (former Stark), imitated Brown and Williamson cigarette brands, after the ban we mentioned previously in History of candy cigarette paragraph, New England Confectionery calls its candy cigarettes “candy stix.” Candy cigarettes produced by World Candies have been sold under names that mimic cigarette brands, including Marlboro, Winston, Salem, More, and Vantage. They also sell bubble gum cigarettes.

### Some example of candy cigarette and actual cigarette
#### Mustang and Mustang
#### Viceroy and Victory

#### Lucky Strike and it's similar candy
#### King's and Kings

## Effect on kids
- According to 2007 study with survey from 25887 adults, found higher rates of childhood candy-cigarette use among those who smoked or had ever smoked. Specifically, “Candy cigarette use was reported by 88% of both current and former smokers and 78% of never smokers,” the study found.

## Conclusion
- We believe that candy itself is not harmful at all, however, what makes it harmful is packaging. Kids always want to pretend like an adult, Smoking is part of being an adult, which leads them to smoking. There are a lot of candy, snacks that are stick shaped, just like candy cigarettes. For example, Pocky looks like a king size super slim cigarette, Umai-bou looks like a cigar, some candy looks like a needle. Have you ever seen kids pretending Pocky as king size super slim ? Looking like Al-copone with Umai-bou ? Or looking like a meth head tapping their arm and injecting their arm with needle shaped candy ? I believe not. We believe because they are sold without any relation to cigarettes or harmful acts. Therefore, we believe packaging and advertising are harmful to kids. Not candy itself.

## Reference
- [World Candies](http://cardhouse.com/a/candy/world/world.htm)
- [1888 The American Stationer](https://books.google.com.tw/books?id=ikJYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1234&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false)
- [Do candy cigarettes encourage young people to smoke?](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1118335/)
- 1964 Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States
- [2010 Family Smoking and Prevention Control Act](https://web.archive.org/web/20170216223911/https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm183211.htm)
- [How Cigarette Advertisements Influence Teens](https://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/Media/Pages/How-Cigarette-Advertisements-Influence-Teens.aspx)
- [Cigarettte Images](www.cigarettespedia.com)
- [Study Links Candy Cigarettes to Smoking](https://www.livescience.com/1635-study-links-candy-cigarettes-smoking.html)