The next tobacco problem was smokeless tobacco. After the mass marketing of cigarettes began, smokeless tobacco had steadily declined in popularity. This trend changed in the mid-1980s, however, with the intensive marketing of a new form of smokeless tobacco called moist snuff, which was sold under such brand names as Skoal, Skoal Bandit, and Copenhagen. Consumption increased, particularly among young men and adolescent boys. The effects on health of both little cigars and smokeless tobacco were quickly studied.
Cigars pose the most recent challenge.
Between 1993 and 1998, sales of cigars in the United States increased by 50 percent. This increase was almost exclusively due to the rising sales of large cigars, which increased 75 percent, from 2.14 billion cigars in 1993 to 3.75 billion in 1998. 8 percent in 1996. This corresponded to an unprecedented increase in promotional and product-placement advertisements for cigars in magazines, movies, and music videos. By comparison, cigarette consumption declined by 3 percent nationally over the same period.