Cutting Loose or Losing (Tobacco) Control over Loosies

The Battle Rages on with Big Tobacco Regulation

The term “loosies” in this case study specifically refers to single cigarettes sold individually and outside of standard packaging — often as a means to sidestep tax laws and regulations. Interestingly, the term also carries other meanings, such as non-album musical tracks released individually by artists, or more colloquially, any single loose cigarette sold at retail level.

This practice is not unique to Africa: in India, loosies are also common, with single sticks priced between ₹15 ($0.17) and ₹25 ($0.28). It is against this backdrop, that I am proposing whether it was beneficial (economically and/or socio-culturally) to cut loose of the loosies in the Global South. Oceania, for example, leads the pack (in percentage terms) in tobacco consumption, but African countries probably trumps that when it comes to the headcount (due to having larger populations).

In my article “MBA Case Study: “Loosies”! Has Africa Lost the War on Big Tobacco?” , I argued — although not strictly an MBA class, Master of Public Administration (MPA) students at the University of Kigali, studying the Public Policy & Management module, were tasked with examining the regulatory hurdles and public policy implications of ongoing regulatory breaches by “Big Tobacco” in Africa. These issues range from the sale of single cigarettes (“loosies”) to bans on smoking in public places, advertising regulations, and plain packaging initiatives.

The case study was pitched against my 2016 article, Consumer Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Exploration of “Big Tobacco” Marketing Practices, where I explored how tobacco marketers used Sub-Saharan Africa as a testbed for “guerrilla marketing” strategies, exploiting weak consumer protection laws that were already well established elsewhere.

A review of regulations (see my follow-on 2019 paper) in Malawi, Mauritius, and Nigeria revealed that while policies to protect vulnerable groups from harmful products exist, enforcement is inconsistent at best. For example, although selling single cigarettes is illegal in much of the world, the practice remains widespread across African markets, particularly in the three countries examined.

The article also highlighted how tobacco companies frequently partnered with governments in joint publicity and sponsorship efforts — such as the John Player Gold Leaf music festival — that not only glamorized smoking, but also projected it as “cool.”

Evidently the economic stakes complicate matters further — In Malawi, for example, tobacco contributes about 50% of the country’s total foreign currency earnings and 15% of GDP, making it politically and economically difficult to penalize “Big Tobacco” for regulatory breaches — [the cutting loose kicks in here].

Back to India — there’s another uphill battle that still requires a fix (literally speaking) — pan masala — It’s complicated as “Pan masala may or may not contain tobacco,” but when it does, it is considered a tobacco product. While pure pan masala is a mixture of ingredients like areca nut, lime, and spices, many versions also include a complimentary pouch of chewing tobacco, and products like “gutkha” are a blend of pan masala with tobacco.

Tobacco-containing pan masala is a harmful and potentially carcinogenic smokeless tobacco product. As the following article reveals, the battle is hardly won against Big Tobacco: Social Determinants and the Prevalence of Paan Masala Use among Adults in India: Results from Global Adult Tobacco Survey, 2016-17 - PMC

However, let’s face it, its not just a health and social issue, but also one of marketing — call it social marketing if you like — its marketing nonetheless, and it surely needs to be more strategic.