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 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 U.S. 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."
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.
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"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
U.S. 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."
(Reporting by Chris Kirkham; Editing by Vanessa O'Connell and Brian
Thevenot)
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