KT&G voluntarily removes ‘lights’ and ‘mild’ descriptors from packs

KT&G is in the process of removing descriptors such as ‘lights’ from its packs even though it is under no legal obligation to do so, according to a story in The Korea Herald.

In September, the Korean government tried to revise the National Health Promotion Law to include a ban on words that might misrepresent cigarette products, but its efforts fell victim to differences that emerged among a number of ministries and the proposal never made it to the National Assembly.

A KT&G official was quoted as saying that though the company was not legally bound to alter product names it was doing so in order to reduce the chances that consumers would misinterpret the descriptors.

Under the process, ‘Timeless TIME lights’ has become ‘Timeless TIME MID’.

And so far three versions of Esse Soon have become Esse Soo. Soon translates to ‘pure’ or ‘mild’, while soo translates to ‘excellent’.