Its branding
Competing priorities are often a challenge when working towards tobacco control policy, and this case was no exception in addition to the ongoing pandemic, issues around homelessness in the city were a top concern during the time advocates were trying to make the case for the pricing policies
Black Bat: Had a regional/value orientation, less national marketing presence, and was not known for a signature blend in the way Camel was
This includes communicating openly about the health effects of our products. Reynolds, which sells Camel cigarettes, did not respond to a request for comment
Thats what the company says, too
We cant attribute this increase to the smoking habit alone because this was an observational (case-control) study rather than a randomized experiment, though they did match age and economic factors between the two groups