Beginning in October, new packaging and advertising for Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company’s (SFNTC) Natural American Spirit (NAS) cigarettes will no longer describe the product as “additive-free” or “natural.” Instead, new language will be used to make adult smokers aware that the brand’s premium, whole-leaf tobacco blends still contain just two ingredients: tobacco and water.
“We’re making some changes to NAS cigarette packs and ads, but that’s the only thing that’s changing,” says Kara Calderon, senior director of marketing for the Natural American Spirit brand. “So to avoid any confusion in the marketplace, we’re working hard to make sure that retailers and adult tobacco consumers understand that even though NAS cigarette packs will use new language to describe the product, the cigarettes inside are exactly the same.”
SFNTC is changing the descriptors to comply with an agreement it made with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The agency had expressed concern that the use of “additive-free”’ and “natural” to describe NAS cigarettes might lead a consumer to believe that NAS cigarettes are safer than other cigarettes.
“They aren’t,” she says. “In fact, for many years, all NAS cigarette packs, and ads that contain an additive-free claim, have disclosed that ‘No additives in our tobacco does NOT mean a safer cigarette.’ Going forward, we will feature a revised disclosure that states: ‘Natural American Spirit cigarettes are not safer than other cigarettes.’
“We’re also producing new advertising and point-of-sale materials that are based on the theme ‘Real. Simple. Different.’ Those three words describe what Natural American Spirit brand is all about.”
Calderon says that SFNTC products featuring the new packaging have been shipped, and that members of RAI Trade Marketing Co.’s field marketing team will replace existing NAS point-of-sale (POS) materials with updated materials during their regular retail calls. In the meantime, wholesalers and retailers can continue to sell any NAS products they already have in stock, and they can continue to use the POS materials that are already in place.
“So while Natural American Spirit cigarette packs use new language to describe the product, they still contain the same premium product adult tobacco consumers have come to expect,” says Calderon. “At SFNTC, we remain committed to creating and responsibly marketing the highest-quality tobacco products on the market. We wouldn’t have it any other way.”