Tobacco industry marketing adaptations to Singapore plain packaging.

BACKGROUND: Singapore has implemented plain packaging, a measure that strips all colours, logos and branding elements from tobacco packs. In other countries, tobacco companies responded to plain packaging with a variety of marketing tactics. Our goal was to describe the tobacco industry's marketing adaptations to Singapore plain packaging. METHODS: Qualitative analysis of 378 cigarette packs sampled from Singapore retailers in March 2019, March 2020 and January 2021, 12 months prior to, 2 weeks prior to and 6 months after plain packaging phase-in, respectively. For each pack, we collected descriptive information on the brand and variant name, pack and stick dimensions, pack shape, differentiating features and distinctive scents, as well as photographic data of the pack, cigarette sticks and any distinct features. We used the March 2019 collection as our baseline dataset, and March 2020 and January 2021 collections as comparison datasets to examine changes in tobacco marketing strategies just before and after plain packaging phase-in. RESULTS: Around Singapore's plain packaging phase-in, tobacco companies launched variants with flavour capsules, novelty filter features and new flavours and used more descriptive variant names reflecting the variant's colour coding or market positioning. Tobacco companies revamped some existing variants, often with Japanese marketing themes to convey a more premium product image. After plain packaging, tobacco companies used longer packs and variations in stick length, filter length and foil texture to further differentiate products. CONCLUSIONS: Following plain packaging in Singapore, tobacco companies rely increasingly on nomenclature and the cigarette stick itself to market and differentiate products.

Effect of Exercise and Calorie Restriction on Tissue Acylcarnitines, Tissue Desaturase Indices, and Fat Accumulation in Diet-Induced Obese Rats.

Both exercise and calorie restriction interventions have been recommended for inducing weight-loss in obese states. However, there is conflicting evidence on their relative benefits for metabolic health and insulin sensitivity. This study seeks to evaluate the differential effects of the two interventions on fat mobilization, fat metabolism, and insulin sensitivity in diet-induced obese animal models. After 4 months of ad libitum high fat diet feeding, 35 male Fischer F344 rats were grouped (n = 7 per cohort) into sedentary control (CON), exercise once a day (EX1), exercise twice a day (EX2), 15% calorie restriction (CR1) and 30% calorie restriction (CR2) cohorts. Interventions were carried out over a 4-week period. We found elevated hepatic and muscle long chain acylcarnitines with both exercise and calorie restriction, and a positive association between hepatic long chain acylcarnitines and insulin sensitivity in the pooled cohort. Our result suggests that long chain acylcarnitines may not indicate incomplete fat oxidation in weight loss interventions. Calorie restriction was found to be more effective than exercise in reducing body weight. Exercise, on the other hand, was more effective in reducing adipose depots and muscle triglycerides, favorably altering muscle/liver desaturase activity and improving insulin sensitivity.