Center for Rapid Surveillance of Tobacco (CRST) will perform surveillance of tobacco product marketing, the tobacco product marketplace, and tobacco use behaviors, transforming tobacco surveillance to be rapid, comprehensive, and coordinated, with salient findings fed immediately into traditional data collection systems. By identifying and evaluating signals in a timely fashion, the CRST will generate critical actionable information about changes in tobacco products which can inform FDA’s regulation of tobacco products leading to a substantial public health impact.
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Tobacco Industry Monitoring (TIM) Alert
Tobacco Industry Marketing (TIM) Alerts provide weekly newsletters to subscribers to keep up to date with tobacco industry marketing and emerging tobacco products.
Excerpt from the Sep 12, 2025 TIM Alert
MODERN ORAL NICOTINE PRODUCTS
Various investor reports suggest that PMI has significantly stepped up its promotional activity on Zyn, including giving a can of Zyn free for any tobacco or nicotine product purchased at specific retail partners. CRST has confirmed this promotion is active for the month of September in select states and that Circle-K and Speedway are participating.
CIGARS
Game is bringing back Watermelon cigarillos for a limited time, as an “MVP” product. The cigars were advertised via email, their website, and in business-to-business magazines. The site describes the flavor as “the perfect summertime companion.”