NGO wants brand name snuffed out

An anti-tobacco NGO will submit a petition to the trademark authority today, asking it to discontinue the use of "Zhongnanhai" - the name of the central leadership compound - as a cigarette brand.

"Using the sacred place's name as that of a cigarette brand is misleading consumers," said Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the Beijing-based NGO, Think Tank Research Center for Health Development, at a symposium yesterday.

"Buyers feel the cigarette brand is acknowledged by the central government, and see it as a symbol of high quality and authority," she said.