The total number of cigarettes sold deceased in the U.S. from 2020 to 2021 while marketing expenditures increased over that same time period according to a recently released Cigarette Report published by the Federal Trade Commission.
Specifically, 190.2 billion units of cigarettes were either sold or given away by major manufacturers in 2021. This number represented a decrease of 13.5 billion units compared to 2020 numbers. Manufacturers also spent more on advertising and promotional activities in 2021, spending $8.06 billion in 2021. The largest category of these expenditures in 2021 was price discounts that were paid to cigarette retailers. These discounts reduced the price of cigarettes to consumers and totaled $6.01 billion.
In a separate report focusing solely on smokeless tobacco, sales of these products fell in 2021 despite there being an increase in marketing spend and sales revenues between 2020 and 2021. Most smokeless tobacco sold between 2020 and 2021 was menthol flavored. In 2021, fruit flavored products only accounted for 2.7 percent of smokeless tobacco sales. Tobacco-free nicotine pouches and lozenges amounted to $804.8 million in sales, up from the 2020 amount by millions.
