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-- WITH PHOTO -- TO HEALTH, AND NATIONAL EDITORS:
Public Health Groups Urge Philip Morris International to End Global Ad
Campaign for Marlboro Cigarettes that Has Been Found to Target Youth
WASHINGTON, March 12, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A coalition of
international public health organizations today called on Philip
Morris International (PMI) to end a global marketing campaign for its
best-selling Marlboro cigarettes that has been found by a German court
to target youth and has generated similar complaints in other
countries. The organizations issued a new report detailing how the
"Be Marlboro" campaign, which has spread to more than 50 countries,
uses themes and images that appeal to youth.
The report, titled "You're the Target," was issued by the Campaign for
Tobacco-Free Kids, Alliance for the Control of Tobacco Use Brazil,
Corporate Accountability International, Framework Convention Alliance,
InterAmerican Heart Foundation and Southeast Asia Tobacco Control
Alliance.
PMI's global marketing campaign, launched in Germany in 2011, links
smoking Marlboro with risk-taking, independence, exploration,
rebellion against authority and freedom - all attributes that are
highly attractive to youth - and delivers the message "Don't Be a
Maybe. Be Marlboro." It features images of attractive young people
partying, falling in love, playing music and engaging in adventure
sports such as snowboarding and surfing. The campaign tells young
audiences that "Maybe never fell in love" or "A maybe is not invited"
and they should define themselves by choosing to "Be Marlboro."
In October 2013, a German court banned the "Be Marlboro" campaign,
finding that it encouraged children as young as 14 to smoke in
violation of Germany's tobacco advertising law and that "the
advertising specifically targets risk-taking, rebellious youths" (PMI
has indicated it will challenge the ruling, but the court's ban
remains in place). Complaints that the campaign targets youth and
violates advertising regulations have also been filed in Brazil,
Colombia and Switzerland.
The report calls on PMI to immediately end the "Be Marlboro" campaign.
It also calls on governments to enact comprehensive bans on tobacco
advertising, promotion and sponsorship in accordance with the
international tobacco control treaty, the Framework Convention on
Tobacco Control. Currently, 177 countries are party to the treaty.
PMI, the world's largest non-governmental tobacco company, is based in
the United States.
Despite the findings of the German court, PMI continues to roll-out
the "Be Marlboro" campaign globally, including in many low- and
middle-income countries struggling with high smoking rates and related
death and disease. These include Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine.
"Philip Morris International claims it doesn't market to kids, but the
evidence in this report shows otherwise. Just like the Marlboro Man
campaign, the new 'Be Marlboro' campaign uses themes and images that
are sure to appeal to kids around the world and lure them into a
deadly addiction," said Matthew L. Myers, President of the U.S.-based
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "We need urgent action to stop this
campaign before it further fuels the global tobacco epidemic. If
Philip Morris is serious about not marketing to kids, it should
immediately end this campaign. Governments should also stop this
campaign by enacting and enforcing comprehensive bans on tobacco
advertising, promotion and sponsorship."
Other findings in the new report include:
-- The "Be Marlboro" campaign has used numerous marketing tactics that
are effective at reaching youth and have been banned in many
countries. These include advertising on billboards, bus stops and
outside retail stores. Other marketing tactics have included music
event sponsorships; beach tours in Tunisia and Latin America where
contests, concerts and parties are used to entice young people to
provide consumer information; online promotional videos that feature
young, attractive people partying and going on adventures, including a
hip-hop themed party in Saudi Arabia; and interactive promotional
booths at shopping malls in Ukraine that feature large cigarette
displays and promotional videos.
-- PMI has a long history of engaging in marketing that targets kids,
as demonstrated by internal tobacco industry documents that have
become public as a result of litigation and the conclusions of a U.S.
federal judge. In 2006, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler
issued a landmark verdict that major U.S. cigarette manufacturers -
including Altria/Philip Morris Cos., then the parent company of Philip
Morris International - had engaged in a decades-long fraud to deceive
the public about the health risks of smoking and their marketing to
kids. Judge Kessler concluded, "Defendants used their knowledge of
young people to create highly sophisticated and appealing marketing
campaigns targeted to lure them into starting smoking and later
becoming nicotine addicts."
-- The themes and imagery in the "Be Marlboro" campaign track the
recommendations of previous Philip Morris internal research documents
on why young people smoke. One key study conducted by Philip Morris in
the 1990s linked smoking with adult initiation rituals, risk-taking,
bonding with peers and the need for youth to feel like they belong to
a group and can partake in "adult activity." The "Be Marlboro"
campaign was created by Leo Burnett, the same advertising firm
responsible for the Marlboro Man campaign that made Marlboro the
world's best-selling cigarette brand and a widely-recognized brand
among youth worldwide.
-- The "Be Marlboro" campaign appears to violate PMI's marketing
standards published on its website, which state, "We do not market to
children or use images or content that might appeal to minors."
Tobacco companies spend billions of dollars annually to promote their
deadly tobacco products and have targeted low- and middle-income
countries where 80 percent of the world's smokers live. Many of these
countries have weak tobacco control laws, allowing tobacco companies
to aggressively market their products and target children. Philip
Morris International alone spent US $7 billion on marketing and
related expenses in 2012.
Tobacco use - the world's leading cause of preventable death - kills
nearly six million people worldwide each year and is projected to kill
one billion people this century if current trends continue. Every
day, 80,000 to 100,000 young people around the world become addicted
to tobacco. Without urgent action by governments around the world,
more than 250 million children and young people alive today will die
from tobacco-related diseases.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: View the report and related materials,
including a slideshow of ads from the "Be Marlboro" campaign:
Additional Media Contacts: Alliance for the Control of Tobacco Use
Brazil: Anna Monteiro, +21 3 311 5640 Corporate Accountability
International: Jesse Bragg, +1 617 695 2525 Framework Convention
Alliance: Marty Logan, +1 647 631 6685 InterAmerican Heart Foundation:
Debora Mazzola, +54 9 11 3682 7511 Southeast Asia Tobacco Control
Alliance: Joy Alampay, +63 9 17 532 6749
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080918/CFTFKLOGO
SOURCE Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
-0- 03/12/2014
/CONTACT: Caroline Renzulli, +1 202 481 9344, crenzulli@tobaccofreekids.org
/Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080918/CFTFKLOGO
PRN Photo Desk photodesk@prnewswire.com
/Web Site: http://www.tobaccofreekids.org
CO: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
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-- DC81802 --
0000 03/12/2014 13:38:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com
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