Promotions aimed at Chinese students

Anti-smoking activists have condemned an advertising campaign that offers junior and senior high school graduates discounts on buying packs of cigarettes at graduation celebrations in Jiangxi Province, China, according to a story in the Global Times.

The Chinese Association on Tobacco Control has said that it has reported the campaign to central government authorities.

Co-organized by the China Tobacco Jiangxi Industrial and its Nancheng county branch, the campaign is said to be aimed at promoting the sales of Jinsheng, a local cigarette brand, via a website targeting school students in Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province.

The website promises that students will get one pack of Jinsheng cigarettes free for every pack they buy at all graduation dinners in co-operating restaurants from June 25 to Sept. 30.

According to China’s protection of minors law, shopkeepers are forbidden from selling tobacco to underage children, though no age limit is specified in China’s tobacco laws.