Background. The Philippines is the fifth largest consumer of cigarettes in the world, largely boosted by what has been dubbed the strongest tobacco lobby in Asia. While the country has passed the Tobacco Regulation Act, no law bans the advertisement of tobacco products at points of sale (POS) in both traditional (sari-sari stores) and modern (supermarkets, gas stations, restaurants) outlets in the Philippines. This study documented the forms of cigarette advertising present at the POS for both modern and traditional retailers in order to provide evidence for a POS advertising ban in the country.

Methods. Data was gathered through a validated observation checklist administered by trained data collectors on 702 randomly selected traditional stores (TS) and 144 modern stores (MS) across six major cities in the country. Descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to quantify the characteristics of the POS advertising.

Findings: Overall, 68% of TS and 44% of MS were observed to have some form of cigarette advertising within the POS. The most common forms of advertising were posters and stickers. Advertising in TS mainly showed cigarette pricing, ensuring retail prices were kept low, while advertising in MS consisted of general advertising that displayed the cigarette’s brand name and tagline. About 57% of the MS with POS advertising had ads located near the checkout counter, the area that gets the most traffic. More than half (58.5%) of the TS displayed cigarettes visibly in front of the store or in a special display box. Stores who received visits from more than two tobacco companies were significantly more likely to have POS advertising than those who received visits from only one (p=0.000). Stores in cities that did not have comprehensive anti-smoking ordinances were significantly more likely to have POS advertising (p=0.014) than cities that did, with three out of every four stores displaying cigarette-related fliers or posters.

Conclusion: This is the first nationwide study in the Philippines to document the presence of POS advertising in both traditional and modern stores. We recommend the implementation of a nationwide tobacco display and advertising ban such as in other Southeast Asian countries, which have been shown to reduce smoking prevalence by 16%.