Cigarette maker Philip Morris
International Inc has suspended a global social media marketing
campaign in response to Reuters inquiries into the company’s use
of young online personalities to sell its new "heated tobacco"
device, including a 21-year-old woman in Russia.
The company's internal "marketing standards" prohibit it
from promoting tobacco products with youth-oriented celebrities
or "models who are or appear to be under the age of 25."
The company told Reuters of the decision late Friday, saying
it had launched an internal investigation into marketing posts
and photographs that Reuters sent to the company for comment
earlier this week.
They included a paid post plugging the tobacco product by
social media "influencer" Alina Tapilina in Moscow - who listed
her age as 21 on Instagram - alongside often seductive photos of
herself drinking wine, swimming and posing with little clothing
in luxurious settings.
"We have taken the decision to suspend all of our
product-related digital influencer actions globally," the
company told Reuters. "Whilst the influencer in question is a
legal age adult smoker, she is under 25 and our guidance called
for influencers to be 25+ years of age. This was a clear breach
of that guidance."
"No laws were broken," the company told Reuters. "However,
we set high standards for ourselves and these facts do not
excuse our failure to meet those standards in this instance."
The company added: "We were deeply disappointed to discover
this breach and are grateful that it was brought to our
attention."
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month
decided it would allow sales of the IQOS device in the United
States after a two-year review process in which Philip Morris
repeatedly assured the regulator that it would warn young people
away from the product.
The FDA declined to comment Friday evening on Philip
Morris's decision to suspend the marketing campaign. The agency
earlier said it would "keep a close watch on ... how the company
is marketing its products."
While most of the social media influencers hired by Philip
Morris overseas did not list their ages on Instagram, a Reuters
review of the firm's social media marketing of IQOS in Japan,
Italy, Switzerland, Russia and Romania shows that Tapilina's
online persona was typical of what the company called its social
media "ambassadors" for the device - rail-thin young women who
revel in the high life.
The company did not directly respond to additional questions
Friday night regarding the intended audience for its digital
influencer campaigns.
Many of the messages contained the hashtag
"#IQOSambassador," tying them into a network of social media
influencers that the international tobacco giant has relied on
to brand the IQOS as a safer alternative to cigarettes and a
sexy fashion accessory.
"I finally have the new IQOS 3, and I can confidently say
yes to change … the level of harmful substances is on average
about 90 percent lower than in smoke," Tapilina wrote in an
April post. "You haven't yet switched to IQOS?"
One Romanian IQOS marketer is 25 years old, according to a
separate actress biography, but did not list her age on
Instagram. Tapilina and nine other IQOS marketers did not
respond to requests for comment.
Philip Morris, in its statement to Reuters, said its
suspension of the social marketing campaign is "concrete proof"
of its "conviction to achieve a smoke-free world through
socially responsible practices."
Matthew Myers, president of The Campaign for Tobacco-Free
Kids, had a different take upon hearing of the suspension Friday
night. The advocacy group collected some of the IQOS marketing
images reviewed by Reuters.
Philip Morris, he said, "is changing their behavior only
when caught red-handed."
The company, Myers said, has historically been "the single
most successful across the globe in making cigarettes
fashionable to young people."
Alina Tapilina from Russia holds an IQOS device. Her social media profile gives her age as 21. Picture: Instagram
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
Over the past year, Philip Morris has increasingly
publicized its "mission" to prevent young people from using
tobacco products. Last month, it issued a release calling on
"all tobacco and e-cigarette companies to do their part to guard
against youth nicotine use."
"Let me be clear: We at Philip Morris International do not,
and will not, market or sell our products to youth," CEO André
Calantzopoulos said during a speech in Boston earlier this
month. "For Philip Morris International, age matters."
When Philip Morris submitted marketing plans with an FDA
application for IQOS in 2017, its sample advertisements featured
models appearing at least a decade older and wearing modest,
professional clothes.
That application, which is still pending before the FDA,
seeks approval to market the IQOS as less harmful than smoking
and outlines company plans to ensure it doesn’t market the
device to "non-intended audiences." The device heats up but does
not burn packages of ground-up tobacco, which resemble small
cigarettes, to create a nicotine-filled aerosol.
In Japan, the intended audience for IQOS marketing includes
the Instagram followers of Ayame Tachibana, a 27-year-old DJ and
model. In one post, she shows off a Valentine’s Day message for
the IQOS device, lovingly scrawled with multicolored pens.
"Happy Valentine IQOS. Love you sooo much!" reads the
Instagram post from February.
Alina Eremia, a Romanian actress and singer, holds a
gold-colored IQOS in front of a Christmas tree.
"My list of resolutions contains 95% fewer moments without a
smile," says Eremia, who is 25 according to her actress
biography on multiple movie and celebrity information websites.
Philip Morris says the IQOS - an acronym for "I quit
ordinary smoking" – contains up to 95 percent fewer toxic
compounds than cigarettes.
Vlad Parvulescu, a manager for Eremia, confirmed she had
been hired to promote IQOS and said she had been contacted by a
Romanian public relations agency. He did not respond to
additional questions about the financial arrangement.
Marketing deals between companies and social media
influencers vary widely, according to industry experts. But
typically a company will work through third-party public
relations or advertising firms that have relationships with
online personalities. Compensation typically ranges from $20 to
$25,000 or more for each post.
Corporations have become increasingly sophisticated in how
they approach their social media campaigns in the past two
years, said Joe Gagliese, co-founder of Viral Nation, a
marketing and talent agency that works with influencers.
He once had to explain the basic concept of an "influencer"
in pitch meetings. Now, companies approach him with "tailor-made
decision briefs saying, 'this is exactly what we want.'"
Reuters reviewed dozens of social media posts featuring the
IQOS device. Many included hashtags such as #IQOSAmbassador,
#paidad, and #notriskfree, indicating that they are IQOS
marketing posts.
Many of the Instagram influencers featuring the products had
tens of thousands of followers, and a few had more than a
million.
VIRAL CAMPAIGNS, BLURRED LINES
Devices such as IQOS and Juul hold potential as a way for
cigarette smokers to transition to less harmful nicotine
products, but some public health advocates worry the sleek new
devices are addicting young people who would have never smoked
cigarettes. Among traditional cigarette smokers, 90 percent
start smoking before the age of 18, according to federal data.
Philip Morris said there have been "no reports" of
"worrisome levels" of unintended use of IQOS.
As part of the FDA review process, Philip Morris pledged to
market only to adult cigarette smokers once it begins selling
IQOS this summer through a partnership with Altria Group Inc,
which sells Marlboro cigarettes in the U.S. IQOS delivers about
the same level of nicotine as a traditional cigarette.
Altria did not respond to requests for comment.
Social media marketing has become a flashpoint in the debate
over regulation of tobacco products, particularly the newest
generation of products such as the wildly popular Juul
e-cigarettes.
Some of Juul’s early social media and YouTube marketing
included images of attractive young people, particularly at a
2015 product launch party. Twitter images from that time on
Juul’s official account featured sensual images of a young woman
breathing out Juul vapor in a group, next to the slogan, “Share
a #Juulmoment.”
Those early campaigns sparked an explosion of video and
photo posts from young people showing themselves using the
product at school or with friends, often under the hashtags
#doit4juul or #juullife. Juul Labs Inc has since said it stopped
using social media influencers and requires anyone in its ads to
be a former cigarette smoker older than 35.
Juul Labs Inc said in a statement it recognizes that "some
of our earliest marketing initiatives did not fully reflect the
goal of our company," which it describes as helping cigarette
smokers transition to its products.
"As a young company, we learned from our experiences and
instituted changes to help ensure that we are only reaching
current adult smokers," the company said.
CONDITIONAL APPROVAL
US laws governing tobacco advertising - which is banned on
radio and television - were drawn up long before social media
and digital advertising became a dominant force in consumer
marketing.
Although no current state or federal law restricts tobacco
advertising on the Internet - including for e-cigarettes and
devices such as IQOS - the FDA can use its authority over new
devices to assert sweeping control over a company's marketing.
As a condition for allowing the device to be sold, the FDA
is requiring Philip Morris to provide detailed analyses of the
age ranges of consumers it reaches through digital advertising.
Philip Morris is also required to submit any new advertising
campaigns, including digital and social media efforts, to the
FDA at least 30 days before it plans to launch them.
Any paid influencers promoting the product also must
disclose "any relationships between you and entities that create
labeling for, advertise, market, and/or promote the products, on
your behalf, or at your direction."
Those rules aim to restrict youth access to tobacco
marketing, the FDA said in a statement, "especially in shared
digital properties such as social media sites."
Thomson Reuters Foundation