The tobacco industry continually develops marketing strategies to reach potential new consumers. One of these strategies is marketing the cigarette itself through design appeals and fl avours. Uruguay is the second country to implement plain packaging legislation for cigarettes in the Americas in 2020. This study aimed to explore fl avouring and design features of tobacco products available near Uruguay schools immediately before the implementation of standardized plain package legislation, to

more »

... onitor tobacco industry tactics. Methods: A fi eldwork protocol was adapted from the one developed at Johns Hopkins University and implemented in fi fteen neighbourhoods in Montevideo, Uruguay, across different socioeconomic areas. The protocol included surveying retailers near schools, purchasing tobacco, and coding per its characteristics. Results: Among the surveyed retailers, 86.67% sold fl avoured cigarettes. Twenty-three unique tobacco products were purchased. Appealing design features were identifi ed in 73.9% of the packs and 34.78% of the products were fl avoured cigarettes. Flavoured cigarettes lacked the child protection warning in a greater proportion than non-fl avoured ones. The most frequently found fi lter designs concerned the activation of fl avour with capsule designs (33.3%) and features meant to imitate technological symbols that appeal to youth. Conclusions: This study shows an increase in availability of fl avoured cigarettes in Uruguay immediately before plain packaging implementation. In countries developing plain packaging legislation fl avour proliferation and modifi cation of design features must be monitored and addressed.