Philip Morris is one of the world’s biggest tobacco companies and not for the first time they have hit the headlines, causing upset. The latest campaign appears to urge smokers to give up smoking, but there’s a catch. It’s this catch that has charities and health experts angry and accusing Philip Morris of “Staggering hypocrisy”.

Some Background

The UK is fairly anti-smoking these days. Back in 2007 Public Health England introduced the Go Smoke Free legislation which effectively saw smoking banned in a wide range of public spaces including cafes, pubs, restaurants, stadiums, train stations, at work, on public transport and more. It is also now illegal to smoke in your own car if you have a minor on board due to the risks associated with passive smoking.

As a result, attitudes towards smoking are very negative and smoking numbers in England alone are lower than they have even been since such records existed. Taxes on cigarettes make them very expensive here and vaping is increasingly popular.

Vaping numbers have risen and many health organisations are advocating for the use of e cigarettes and e liquids as an alternative to harmful tobacco cigarettes. Public Health England themselves released a review earlier this year in which they released findings that they believed vaping to be “at least 95% less harmful than tobacco cigarette smoking”.

Philip Morris’ New Campaign

The new campaign from Philip Morris appears to urge UK smokers to quit smoking. It offers information on giving up smoking which includes using their own heated tobacco products. PM are skating on very thin ice here as whereas vaping has been thoroughly tested for years, heated tobacco hasn’t and early indications don’t appear to show excellent results. It is important to remember that many of the chemicals found within tobacco cigarettes have been classified as toxic by the World Health Organisation, as well as being potentially cancer-causing.

Urging UK smokers to quit and pointing them towards their own tobacco products is not a move unheard of by Philip Morris and similar campaigns have landed them in hot water in the past.

Advertising of tobacco products in the UK is strictly monitored under the TDP regulations which dictate the size of packets, the info that must be on them, the lack of branding and more, and broadcasting standards agencies amongst others. This underhanded advertisement is seen as not quite advertising smoking but not really offering the best advice to smokers either.

Cancer Research is amongst many health charities and research organisation who felt this campaign was out of order and insincere given that PM actively still advertise smoking outside the UK where advertising rules do not stop them.

In Summary

Again, this is not the first time Philip Morris have bent the rules in order to try and advertise heated tobacco products while claiming to be moving towards a smoke-free world. The fact that more than 85% of their profits still come from cigarettes makes many think that Philip Morris has a long way to go before their non-smoking efforts are seen as genuine as opposed to an advertising ploy of sorts.
We’ll just stick with open and honest advertising and e cigarettes with e liquids