Trademarks and brand logo are important to distinguish companies and producers from each other. A customer can say, "I don't want to ride airline X because they are frequently late/delayed, nor airline Y too because they are expensive, I prefer airline Z because their fares are cheap they mostly fly on time." That is branding from the perspective of customers.
When government or many groups dislike or hate something, this is how regulations and later prohibitions look like:
1. Raise the tax, make it more expensive.
2. Restrict or prohibit advertising to certain events.
3. Mandate graphic warnings, like "Smoking kills" and show ugly pictures of dilapited lungs and mouth.
4. Actual product restrictions to certain consumers, like "for people above 21 years old" and so on.
5. Ultimately, plain packaging. Like all tobacco products, all beer and wine products, all chocolate bars, etc. to be labelled as plain "cigarettes" or "beer" or "red wine" or "chocolate".
Boring and lousy, right?
Of course smoking -- and drinking lots of alcohol, and taking
lots of soda, ice cream, eating lots of
fatty, salty, preserved food, sedentary lifestyle, etc. etc -- is bad for people's health.
But people -- not the state or media or the health NGOs, etc. -- own their body. People recognize the risks of smoking, drinking, drugs, etc. and they compare such health risks with the pleasure of smoking and drinking. Then they decide whether to continue doing it or stop; if they continue, whether to smoke 1 or 20 sticks a day, drink 1 or 6 bottles of beer a day, etc.
Too much nannyism by the state purportedly to "protect public
health" is wrong, and is a clear smoke screen and excuse for more
taxation, more regulations, prohibitions, more government.
Plain packaging of tobacco, beer, whiskey, chocolates, etc. in the Philippines, I do not think this kind of legislation
will prosper here. Mainly because legislators themselves are among the big
fans of branded tobacco, beer, wine, etc. But it is an opportunity for big time extortion
by health regulators and/or legislators.
Meanwhile, the graphic photos law against tobacco consumption, the implementing rules and
regulations (IRR) to be signed soon, http://www.interaksyon.com/article/123786/doh-implementing-rules-for-cigarette-graphic-health-warnings-out-before-march
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See also:
IPR and Innovation 27, India strengthening its IP protection, September 30, 2015
IPR and Innovation 28, Recent IP development in Singapore, October 10, 2015
IPR and Innovation 29, Civil society enforcement of patents, copyrights, January 18, 2016
IPR and Innovation 30, Patents and pharma issues in Asia in 2007, February 07, 2016
Tobacco Tax 9: Why Earmarking Legislation is Wrong, January 14, 2014
Tobacco Tax 10: More Questions on Sin Tax Money, March 03, 2015
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