All that glitters to hook you could be deadly

If you have visited or lived in China, chances are you have seen beautiful, glittering displays of cigarettes in specialist tobacco stores or around the cashier in convenience stores.

Tobacco advertising at retail points of sale - in specialist tobacco shops, as well as regular and convenience stores - has become an increasingly important form of marketing for tobacco companies in China and around the world. One of the "last avenues" of tobacco advertising has been exploited because of restrictions on other forms of tobacco advertising, such as on radio and TV, and in newspapers and magazines.

Yet tobacco advertising at retail points of sale is just as insidious as other forms of tobacco advertising, and in some ways even more dangerous. Convenience stores are magnets for youth and retail displays are well remembered by teenagers.