Background

TRACIT was established in April 2017 and formally launched in New York in September 2017. It received endorsements from representatives of the American Department of Homeland Security, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime and the OECD.¹

Its first public event appears to have been a two-day conference in London on combatting illicit trade sponsored by the Financial Times and the Philip Morris campaign on illegal trade Impact.² As well as Tracit Director General Jeffery Hardy, the were several members of the PMI Impact panel: Suzanne Hayden, Alain Juillet, Paul Makin, Luis Moreno Ocompo, Navi Pillay and Jurgen Storbeck. PMI CEO Andre Calantzopoulos was also a guest speaker.

Membership

TRACIT’s website has fluctuated between disclosing and not disclosing its membership. As of July 2021, TRACIT’s membership page listed Philip Morris International (PMI) while British American Tobacco (BAT) and Japan Tobacco International (JTI) have been listed as members on a previous version of the webpage. Also previously listed as a project partner is Crime Stoppers International, which has tobacco company support.³⁴

Partners

TRACIT is partnered with several other similar organisations including the Anti-Counterfeiting Group and is part of the UN Global Compact (UNGC).⁵

Activities

Overview and tobacco funding

The organisation breaks its focus down into 12 sectors, of which one is tobacco. It says:

“Overall, for the tobacco industry the illicit trade in cigarettes results in lost revenue, reputational damage and loss of consumer trust, and increased costs in supply chain monitoring and the implementation of technologies that enable companies to track and trace their products.”⁶

TRACIT accepts sponsorship from tobacco companies to help in the production of reports and quotes uncritically from industry documents as part of its analysis. In its lobbying it will often share platforms with industry officials and their allies. For instance, in its introductory analysis of the the tobacco sector, TRACIT quotes from a KPMG report called Project Sun which was produced in 2015 and looks at the illicit cigarette market in the European Union, Norway and Switzerland. The report was produced on behalf of BAT, Imperial, JTI and PMI.⁷ Nowhere does TRACIT reference the multiple reports, supported by evidence, of the involvement of tobacco companies in the illicit trade.

In March 2019 TRACIT was awarded funding from PMI IMPACT – a $100 million initiative from Philip Morris International to support projects against smuggling. The award, one of 31 in a second round of funding worth $21 million in total, was for the:

“Development of a Global Illicit Trade Business Report, drawing upon private sector experiences and identifying solutions to supply chain vulnerabilities common to all forms of illicit trade. It examines transportation modalities, customs, free trade zones, human trafficking, criminal activity, financial fraud, and regulatory gaps. Findings will be shared with all stakeholders in response to their calls to significantly upgrade the availability and exchange of information.”⁸⁹

Work programmes

Global Illicit Trade Environment Index

The Global Illicit Trade Environment Index, released in June 2018, was produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit and evaluates 84 countries on their “structural capability to guard against illicit trade, highlighting specific strengths and weaknesses”. The objective is “to improve the knowledge and understanding of the regulatory environment and economic circumstances that enable illicit trade.¹⁰ It is a key report which, with its regional and country subsets and recommendations, is the foundation for TRACIT policy proposals and lobbying. The report’s sponsors include Philip Morris International (platinum sponsor), British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and Crime Stoppers International (bronze sponsors).

Mapping impact of illicit trade and sustainable development goals

In an area which has seen increasing interest by tobacco companies, TRACIT maps the impact of illicit trade against the UN sustainable development goals. It released a report in July 2019.

The report has chapters for each of its sectors and how illicit trade has a negative impact on specific goals. For tobacco it lists the goals of good health and well-being; decent work and economic growth; peace, justice and strong institutions and partnerships for goals as being affected. Again, no mention is made in the chapter on any culpability that tobacco companies have for the illicit trade.¹¹

Involvement with UNCTAD

In July 2019, as part of its launch on the report, TRACIT co-hosted a meeting on illicit trade and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in partnership with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).¹² TRACIT Director General Jeffrey Hardy addressed the meeting with contributions from UN officials.¹³TRACIT’s engagement with the UN organisation reflects the attempts of tobacco companies to use third parties to ingratiate themselves with governments as partners in reducing illicit trade. Other UN organisations have been targeted by groups with close tobacco company affiliations such as Concordia and the International Chamber of Commerce.¹⁴

Regional and Country Activities

TRACIT has been active in a number of countries representing industry interests at governmental level backed by its own reports. The principal report is the Illicit Trade Environment Index from which various regional versions have been produced.

Asia

• Produced regional policy recommendations in 2018 for the region which in summary were: ¹⁵
• Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) play leadership roles on combatting illicit trade
• Establishing an antic-illicit trade coordinator and inter-agency task force
• partnerships with the private sector
• Protect Free Trade Zones from illicit traders
• Launch public awareness campaigns
• “rationalize tax policies and subsidies to ensure that they do not incentivize illicit trade, smuggling, adulteration and theft, by adopting simple, single tier specific tax structures, and accounting for various demand-related factors including overall consumption, price, income levels and the ensuing affordability of products.”¹⁵ The tobacco industry often uses these types of arguments regarding taxes, to prevent raises and further regulations. See Tobacco Tactics Price and Tax for more details on this aspect.
• Establish joint investigations on illicit trade/trafficking and criminal organisations
• Study the patterns of illicit trade flows
• Produced a regional version of its Global Illicit Trade Index.¹⁵ Among those who were interviewed for the Asia report were:
• Ali Salman, director of research, at Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEA). The Malaysia-based think tank has lobbied against tobacco control measures and has received funding from tobacco companies
• Etienne Sanz de Acedo, CEO, International Trademark Association, which has Barry Gerber from Philip Morris International on its board.¹⁶
• Seth Hays, chief representative—Asia-Pacific, International Trademark Association

Myanmar

• Produced regional policy recommendations in 2018:¹⁷ The recommendations were similar to the report for Asia but also included:
• Tackle pervasive corrupt practices
• “Increase effectiveness of customs procedures to block the flow of illicit and parallel (grey) market products”
• Partnerships with international organisations such as World Customs Organization, Interpol and the European Anti-Fraud Office.
• Produced a regional version of its Global Illicit Trade Index.¹⁸

Latin America

• Produced regional policy recommendations in 2018:¹⁹. The recommendations were similar to the report for Asia but also included:
• Pursue law enforcement and customs cooperation through expanding the Pacific Alliance (Alianza del Pacifico) or “through projects sponsored by Ameripol, the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) or the World Customs Organization (WCO).”
• Intensify public-private coordination and uses examples from Argentina and Costa Rica (see below)
• Strengthen copyright protection enforcement
• fully adopt anti-money laundering regulations
• raise public awareness about the threat of illicit trade “to help shift public perception … that contraband is not a minor issue but a national security problem, with links to organized crime.”¹⁹
• In September 2019 TRACIT participated in the 7th INTERPOL Global Conference on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling, in Buenos Aires.²⁰ This had 750 people attending from 97 countries.
• In June 2019 TRACIT was in Buenos Aires at the Regional Summit on Security and Illicit Trade hosted by the business newspaper’ “El Cronista”. The panels included discussions on public-private cooperation and the vulnerabilities of Free Trade Zones.²¹ Director-General Jeffrey Hardy particularly highlighted the need to curb illicit trade in Free Trade Zones. Philip Morris International had a strong presence at the event with representatives from its PMI Impact anti-illicit project as well as providing media support.²²

Argentina

• In June 2019 TRACIT highlighted how fighting illicit trade is essential for attracting investment and creating growth opportunities during a National Roundtable for Fair Trade hosted by the Argentina Medium Business Confederation (CAME). A press release from TRACIT said that Director-General Jeffrey Hardy “called on Latin American governments to rationalize tax policies that can incentivize illicit trade”.²³

Colombia

• Produced policy recommendations which repeated many of those from the Latin American policy report (see above).²⁴ In particular it says “Colombia should simplify its current structure following OECD standards + VAT and reduce the tax burden to decrease the current high incentives for the illicit market.”²⁴

The Ministry of Health of Brazil and the National Commission overseeing the implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control have provided solid arguments on this issue of taxation and these have become useful for the rest of the countries in the region, as well as Colombia.

“There is solid evidence that reducing tobacco tax is an inappropriate initiative to reduce illicit trade. Studies, including a recent World Bank review, point out that the main determinant of the illegal tobacco product market is not the difference in taxation of tobacco products between countries but the dominance of this market by organized crime factions, attracted by profitability and impunity, resulting from the soft penalties applied to this offense. In addition, countries that have reduced tobacco taxes to try to reduce illicit trade have experienced reduced tax collection, smoking growth, especially among young people, and no positive effect on smuggling. This was the case of Canada and Sweden in the 1990s. In Brazil, also in the 1990s, the Federal Revenue Service lowered taxes on cigarettes to limit smuggling. However, tax revenues fell, and illicit trade continued to grow”²⁵

• In October 2018 at a meeting in Bogota, TRACIT urged Colombia to work with the private sector to develop a comprehensive and effective anti-illicit trade program to curb illicit goods that harm legitimate businesses, workers, consumers and governments. Colombia ranks 43 out of 84 on TRACIT’s Global Illicit Trade Environment Index, primarily because of issues around transparency and governance of its Free Trade Zones (FTZs).²⁶

Costa Rica

• Produced policy recommendations which repeated many of those from the Latin American policy report (see above).²⁷ In addition it recommends strengthening the Comision Mixta de Lucha Contra el Comercio Ilicito, composed by representatives from the Ministries of Health, of Finance, of Home Affairs, from the Customs Office and the Police force. This Commission was created in 2014 and later on, representatives from the chambers of commerce and industry were added as members as well. ²⁸ Costa Rican Civil Society have exposed the conflict of interest of this Commission and made a formal claim to the government in 2016, given that the representatives of the industry come from the Costa Rican-American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), whose members include British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International.²⁹
• In August 2018 TRACIT addressed government officials and industry stakeholders during a conference on Illicit trade, hosted by AmCham, which has tobacco industry members.³⁰ The conference featured a presentation on TRACIT’s Global Illicit Trade Environment Index, which ranks Costa Rica 46th of 84 countries evaluated on the extent they enable or prevent illicit trade. Gerardo Lizano, AmCham’s representative to the Comision Mixta de Lucha Contra el Comercio Ilicito, and Nogui Acosta, vice minister of income in the Ministry of Finance, spoke at the event.³¹

Dominican Republic

• Produced a country briefing based on its Global Illicit Trade Environment Index (see above).³² The report quoted Manuel Cabral as an expert on local markets for alcohol and tobacco products as saying “frequent and piecemeal changes in tax policy create distortions that ultimately the use of illegal products”. Cabral worked for Philip Morris International from the country from 2011 to 2017, ending up as director of corporate affairs for the Dominican Republic and Caribbean³³ Among those listed as sponsors and contributors to the country report were British American Tobacco, Crime Stoppers International, Japan Tobacco International, and Philip Morris International
• Produced policy recommendations which repeated many of those from the Latin American policy report (see above).³⁴
• In May 2019 TRACIT addressed government officials and industry stakeholders during a conference on Illicit trade. It was hosted by the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic, the British Embassy and the British Chamber of Commerce of the Dominican Republic. The Chamber of Commerce has BAT subsidiary BAT Republica Dominicana and Imperial Tobacco subsidiary Tabacalera De Garcias.³⁵
• TRACIT’s Director-General, Jeffrey Hardy, called for more public-private partnerships saying they are “essential to the design and implementation of effective programs to prevent illicit, contraband and counterfeit products.”³⁶ Such partnerships could provide a means for tobacco companies to engage with governments and circumvent the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control article 5.3.

Ecuador

• Produced policy recommendations which repeated many of those from the Latin American policy report (see above).³⁷ It highlighted the need for “strong and proactive measures” in strengthening the protection of Free Trade Zones
• In November 2018, TRACIT addressed government officials and industry stakeholders during a conference on Illicit trade, hosted by Cámara de Industrias y Producción (CIP). The current vice- president of CIP worked previously as Corporate Affairs Director for Ecuador and Peru at Philip Morris International for 2 and a half years, before taking on her current position at CIP. ³⁸ The conference featured a presentation on TRACIT’s Global Illicit Trade Environment Index, which ranks Ecuador 60th of 84 countries evaluated on the extent they enable or prevent illicit trade. “The country serves as a major transit point for illicit goods in the region, including … illicit trade in tobacco…”³⁹

Panama

• In 2017, Ulrike Bonnier from TRACIT participated in a session exploring actions to combat human trafficking and other forms of illicit trades at the 38th Annual Crime Stoppers International Conference.⁴⁰ Crime Stoppers International regularly engages with the tobacco industry. Among the speakers at the Panama conference were Nicholas Otte and Arturo Fernandez from Philip Morris’s Illicit Trade Strategies and Prevention for Latin America and Canada region. The silver sponsor for the event was British American Tobacco.⁴¹

Europe

• Produced a regional briefing based on its Global Illicit Trade Environment Index (see above).⁴² Among those listed as sponsors and contributors to the country report were British American Tobacco, Crime Stoppers International, Japan Tobacco International, and Philip Morris International
• Produced policy recommendations for the region including rationalising tax policies, subsidies and tax exemptions, encouraging partnerships with companies and have stronger criminal penalties. It highlighted the 2016 Administrative Cooperation Arrangement between the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the State Customs Committee of Belarus aimed at helping investigative cooperation between them, specifically on the illicit trade in tobacco products.⁴³

Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro

• Produced a regional briefing based on its Global Illicit Trade Environment Index (see above).⁴⁴ Among those listed as sponsors and contributors to the country report were British American Tobacco, Crime Stoppers International, Japan Tobacco International, and Philip Morris International
• Produced policy recommendations for the region which echoed much of those in the Europe report (see above).⁴⁵

Middle East

• Produced a country briefing based on its Global Illicit Trade Environment Index (see above).⁴⁶ The report says:
  

  “illicit tobacco trade has steeply increased due to high excise taxes (accounting for about 27% of the market) and new regulations that standardize tobacco packaging can further increase the demand for counterfeit and illicit products.”

  This echoes industry arguments against plain packaging and tax increases. The evidence used to support this is a news story which is itself based on a PMI-funded study.⁴⁷

• Produced policy recommendations for the region which echoed much of those in the Europe report (see above).⁴⁸

United Arab Emirates

• Produced a country briefing based on its Global Illicit Trade Environment Index (see above).⁴⁹The report recommends the UAE sign and ratify the five illicit trade treaties including the WHO Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products. Among those listed as sponsors and contributors to the country report were British American Tobacco, Crime Stoppers International, Japan Tobacco International, and Philip Morris International
• Produced policy recommendations for the region including strengthening co-operation in the region, having tougher oversight of free trade zones, rationalising tax policies and subsidies and improving public awareness. ⁴⁹

Africa

Tunisia

• Produced a country briefing based on its Global Illicit Trade Environment Index (see above).⁵⁰The report says
  

  “Stopping tobacco smuggling, in particular, must be a top priority for policy makers given the significant fiscal leakages and the large profits that organized crime and armed militias in the region amass from the illicit tobacco trade.”

• Produced policy recommendations for the region including strengthening co-operation in the region, having tougher oversight of free trade zones, rationalising tax policies and subsidies and improving public awareness. On the issue of taxation the report says:
  

  “excessive tax levels can reduce affordability of legitimate products and drive demand for illicit substitutes. Organized crime groups also may practice “tax arbitrage” to gain profits by smuggling products from relatively lower to higher taxed markets.”⁵⁰

  As in other TRACIT reports there is no mention of the involvement of tobacco companies in illicit activity.

South Africa

• In October 2019, TRACIT’s Director General Jeffrey Hardy addressed the 12th International Law Enforcement Intellectual Property Crime Conference in Cape Town. The conference was organised by INTERPOL, the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition and South African Police Service.
• TRACIT used the conference to launch its policy recommendations for South Africa, including tackling illict tobacco which, according to a paper in Tobacco Control, is estimated to compromise a third of the market.⁵¹.⁵² TRACIT’s recommendations echoed those for its other country reports including tying activiy to achieve Sustainable Development Goals, tackling corruption, “rationalize tax policies”, promoting track & trace and similar technology and promoting private-public partnerships.⁵³ As examples of “valuable partners” it offers the American Chamber of Commerce in South Africa and the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa. The former has Philip Morris SA as a member,⁵⁴ while the latter has Soraya Zoueihid, the Area Director for British American Tobacco in Southern Africa, as a board member.⁵⁵

Staff

Senior Management

The senior management team is made up of the following people:⁵⁶

• Jeffrey P Hardy – Director-General. Hardy previously served as the Director of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy. The group has consistently produced reports sympathetic to its tobacco industry members and lobbied against Plain Packaging measures. Hardy is founder and managing director of IDA Consulting, a management consultancy.⁵⁷ Hardy is listed in the EU lobbying register.⁵⁸
• Stefano Betti – Deputy Director General
• Louis Bonnier – Director of Programs. Co-author of the report on illicit trade and SDGs
• Ulrika Bonnier – Director of Programs. Co-author of the report on illicit trade and SDGs
• Suriya Padmanaabhan – Director of Programs
• Cynthia H Braddon – Head of Communications and Public Policy
• Esteban Giudici – Senior Policy Advisor

Directors

TRACIT gives its mailing address as One Penn Plaza in New York City, but it is registered in Fort Myers, Florida, as not-for-profit organisation under US tax code 501(c)(6). Its corporate filing on 19 April 2019 listed three directors: ⁵⁹

• Jeffrey Hardy
• David Benjamin
• Shelley Duggan. UK-based trademark lawyer who is a director at Proctor & Gamble. Duggan is chair of the Anti-Counterfeiting Group (ACG), a not-for-profit global trade association which tackles counterfeiting and is partner of TRACIT.⁶⁰ One of the founders of the ACG was British American Tobacco. It is no longer listed as a member but Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco International, Imperial Tobacco and the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association all are.⁶¹

Advisory Council

The organisation’s Advisory Council is made up of independent experts providing advice in a personal capacity.⁶² Among its members are:

• Karl Lallerstedt, from the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, contributed a chapter to a book on organised crime which grew out of a BAT-funded project.⁶³.
• Leonard McCarthy, founder of integrity and risk management firm LFMcCarthy Associates, prior to that an investigator at the World Bank.⁶⁴ McCarthy came to prominence as the head of South Africa’s Directorate of Special Operations, or so-called Scorpions, which investigated organised crime, including tobacco smuggling. The unit was disbanded in 2009.⁶⁵

Relevant Links

TRACIT homepage: https://www.tracit.org/

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Tobacco Smuggling
• Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products
• Tobacco-funded group TRACIT tries to influence tobacco control policy, 28 July 2020

References

The post TRACIT appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Image 1. Be Marlboro billboard Germany, screengrab from Frederic de Wilde PMI Investor Day presentation, June 2012

The campaign ran in 64 countries worldwide.⁶⁷

Campaign Outline

The following information about PMI’s Be Marlboro campaign is sourced from a presentation by the tobacco company’s Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Frederic de Wilde, at PMI’s 2012 investor day. ⁶⁶

Billboards

In December 2011, campaign billboards appeared with a large black lettered ‘MAYBE’ written on a white background with the MAY crossed out with a red cross (Image 1). The billboards were not attributable to anyone. This was a deliberate omission as these ads were intended to act as a “teaser campaign” to arouse people’s interest.⁶⁸
Subsequently, a few weeks later, the advertisements developed from this simple ‘maybe’ into ads offering two choices and the slogan ‘Don’t be a maybe. Be Marlboro’ (Images 2, 3 and 4). All images unless otherwise stated are sourced from Frederic de Wilde’s PMI Investor Day presentation, 2012.

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

According to PMI’s de Wilde, “Once the campaign concept was established, we started introducing image visuals to add emotional elements and anchor “Be Marlboro” in real situations.”⁶⁸
De Wilde explained the concept of the youth-focused campaign by stating that “young adults feel overwhelmed by the flood of information and options that new technologies offer. In this time of uncertainty, they have very few life compasses that can provide them with guidance. With the new campaign, Marlboro encourages them to be decisive, trust themselves and follow their inspiration. The concept is very simple: there are three ways to react when faced with a decision: Yes, No, or Maybe. Marlboro does not believe in Maybes.”⁶⁸
Accompanying each image in the gallery below is PMI’s intended take home message of each image as described by de Wilde.⁶⁸

Image 5.“We recognize the value of becoming a self-starter”

Image 6. “We also encourage adult smokers to demonstrate their true feelings”

Image 7. “…metaphorically, find your way in life and don’t be held back by obstacles”

Image 8.“Trusting the others to share a common emotion is also something ‘Maybe’s’ would not consider”

Image 9.“Reaching the top to live the moment just depends on your decisiveness”

Image 10. “Communicate and take your chances, don’t hesitate it’s up to you”

Image 11.“Savour every moment even the simple ones”

According to PMI, these campaigns were explicitly aimed at legal age smokers between 18 and 24. Organisations promoting health in Germany such as the German Cancer Research Centersic and ‘Forum Rauchfrei’ (Smoke-free Forum) do not agree, their counter response is described in the ‘Public Health Community’s Response’ section below.

Cinema Commercials

To accompany the billboard media in Germany, PMI also ran two adverts on the big screen in cinemas. An internet search for ‘Be Marlboro adverts’ produced a number of Be Marlboro ads. It is not known which, if any, of these examples were run in Germany. Three adverts of similar style but different content were found in the English language and two in Ukrainian. None were in German; although this does not mean that these ads could not have been aired in Germany as the billboard campaign was presented in English. The English ads were located on Vimeo and the Ukrainian on You Tube. Whilst the ads were still available at the time of writing, they were subsequently removed from the public domain.
In a now removed online video of an English language Be Marlboro ad, posted on the Vimeo site on 8th May 2012 by the production agency Indonesia Kreatif, a breaking dawn is shown and a male voiceover says:

“No poems finished, no mountains climbed, oceans crossed, no freedom won, no city lights, no love letters, this world would be nothing if we just said maybe, so let it out, set it free. Don’t be a maybe. Be Marlboro.”⁶⁹

Throughout the ad, there are images of young attractive people taking part in inspirational activities.
Another posted on 8th November 2011(and subsequently removed), by Avenida Films, a Columbian production company which specialises in cinema advertising, has no voice over other than a ‘Be Marlboro’ statement at the end. The ad, backed by a thumping dance ‘chill-out’ track, featured images of young, attractive and healthy-looking men and women having fun, swimming and diving, travelling, dancing around a campfire on the beach, dancing in clubs and posing for group pictures together.⁷⁰ A third English language Be Marlboro ad (no longer available) posted by Palermo Films S. A., an ad agency with a base in both Argentina and Uruguay, shows similar images to the other ads; young people having a good time. The voice over says,

“Be real, be free, be fearless, be inspiration, be celebration, be everything you are, and everything you wanna be. Be Marlboro.”⁷¹

Promotional Events

In Germany, there is evidence to suggest that the Be Marlboro campaign was promoted in specialist club nights. It is known that some of these parties were held in a secret location, with people receiving VIP tickets weeks before the party and told of a time, date and meet location. Don’t be a Maybe parties are known to have occurred in Stuttgart, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Cologne (Image 12).^{72737475 76} From the meeting point party goers were transported (by coach) to another venue where an elaborate DJ set with Marlboro branding was waiting. Big LED screens flashed up the Be Marlboro message of Don’t Be a Maybe. Be Marlboro (Image 13). At the parties, attendees were given drinks vouchers and attractive young brand ambassadors dressed in the Marlboro brand colours handed out free Marlboro cigarette samples. Similar parties were organised by PMI in Switzerland (Image 14).⁷⁷

Image 12. “At this Marlboro party, courageous decisions count.” Don’t be a Maybe Party Cologne, Prinz Cologne Magazine, June 2012

Image 13. Don’t be a Maybe Party Stuttgart, screengrab of a You Tube video made by a party goer

Image 14. Werbung und Verkaufsförderung an Privatanlässen, L’Observatoire: Projekt zur Beobachtung der Marketingstrategien für Tabakprodukte, 2012

Public Health Response

Image 15. Indoor Kiosk advertising, Forum Rauchfrei, August 2012

In 2012, the tobacco advertising law in Germany stated⁷⁸ that tobacco advertisements were prohibited on television, radio, in print media and on the Internet, however, outdoor advertising on billboards was permitted as was advertising in the cinema after 6pm. In terms of ad content in Germany, the tobacco industry was not permitted to:

• target young people;
• make any statements that the inhalation of tobacco smoke is worthy of emulation;
• make any claims on health;
• provide misleading information;
• make any reference to ‘natural’ nature of ingredients.

It is arguably the case that, with its Be Marlboro campaign content, PMI violated at least two of these content rules. Firstly, the advertisements are explicitly targeted at young people. De Wilde stated that it was targeted at youth between 18 and 24.⁶⁸ What is not clear however, is how PMI could ensure that these ads appeal only to their target audience, namely ‘Legal age smokers’, and not to youngsters under the age of 18. The use of young, attractive models in addition to the use of hedonistic slogans are likely to appeal to youth in general. Secondly, the billboard with the slogan ‘Maybe never lights up the night’ (Image 11) arguably promoted emulation of smoking behaviour.
In response to pressure from the German Cancer Research Center along with the University of Hamburg, as well as the advocacy group ‘Forum Rauchfrei’⁷⁹, Philip Morris withdrew its billboards and cinema ads. However, information from Forum Rauchfrei suggests that the Be Marlboro campaign was still visible at the point of sale (Image 15).⁸⁰ and that the withdrawal was only temporary. In tobacco shops and service stations back lighted Marlboro wall displays adorned the tobacco kiosks at the point of sale and branded change trays were used when giving customers change in these locations. Furthermore, electronic change trays that can display digital adverts have been used. The German Cancer Research Center said that the Be Marlboro campaign was shown on these electronic change trays
A report by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids published in collaboration with the Alliance for the Control of Tobacco Use Brazil, Corporate Accountability International, Framework Convention Alliance, InterAmerican Heart Foundation, and Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance heavily criticised PMI for illegally targeting teens,⁸¹ drawing global attention to the issue.⁸²⁸³⁸⁴

Legal challenges

Legal challenges were raised against the campaign in Brazil, Guatemala, Germany and Switzerland.
Even though German authorities outlawed the campaign in October 2013 for illegally encouraging smoking in young people (ages 14-21), PMI continued to roll out its campaign in low and middle income countries.⁸⁵ In August 2014, the consumer protection agency from the Brazilian state of São Paulo fined PMI fined over $480,000 for violating the Brazilian Advertising Self-Regulation Code.⁸⁶
In Switzerland, the advocacy group Oxyromandie filed complaints against the Be Marlboro campaign to the Swiss Commission for Fairness in Commercial Communication, a self-regulatory body which PMI is a member of. The complaints were dismissed and no action was taken.⁸⁷
In Colombia, civil society complaints called on the Superintendent of Industry and Commerce to ban PMI from running the Be Marlboro campaign and sanction them for violating the country’s tobacco advertising ban. PMI removed the promotional videos in question but no penalties ensued.⁸¹⁸⁸
In October 2015, a German court overturned the ban on the Be Marlboro campaign on the grounds that the wording did not explicitly indicate a focus on an underage population.⁸⁹

Be Malboro Violates Voluntary Agreements in Germany and Article 13 of the FCTC

Since the 1960s in Germany, advertising restrictions have resulted from a series of voluntary agreements with the tobacco industry. In 1993 as the Ministry of Health in Germany announced that as part of a voluntary agreement, the tobacco industry would not, amongst a long list of other restrictions, produce advertising with models under the age of 30 and would not include images of activities that are typical of young people.⁹⁰ It is disputably the case that the models used in the Be Marlboro billboard ads and certainly in the cinema ads appeared younger than 30 years of age and are engaged in activities that people younger than this age threshold take part in.
Furthermore, although tobacco advertising in certain forms is currently permitted in Germany, as signatories of the World Health Organisation’s, Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world’s first global health treaty, Germany is obliged to take steps prohibit tobacco advertising in line with Article 13. The guidelines providing advice for the implementation of Article 13 recommend that:
“A comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, should cover:

• all advertising and promotion, as well as sponsorship, without exemption;
• direct and indirect advertising, promotion and sponsorship;
• acts that aim at promotion and acts that have or are likely to have a promotional effect;
• promotion of tobacco products and the use of tobacco;
• commercial communications and commercial recommendations and actions;
• contribution of any kind to any event, activity or individual;
• advertising and promotion of tobacco brand names and all corporate promotion; and traditional media (print, television and radio) and all media platforms, including Internet, mobile telephones and other new technologies as well as films.”⁹¹

In Germany, the German Cancer Research Center made Germany’s contradictory position clear – Germany have ratified the FCTC but yet tobacco advertising still persists.⁷⁸

After Be Marlboro came you DECIDE

In February 2016, Be Marlboro was followed up by a new ‘you DECIDE’ campaign which was also launched in Germany.⁹²
The new campaign was celebrated within the marketing industry for supposedly mending the harm caused by the controversial Be Marlboro campaign.⁹³ The new campaign is similarly sleek in design, features attractive young people and slogans such as “Will you stay real?” and “Is the sky the limit?”.⁹⁴ Senior Vice President Marketing & Sales, Werner Barth, presented three images of this new advertising campaign on the PMI Investor Day in September 2016 (images 16-17).⁹⁵

Image 16

Image 17

Image 18

In contrast to Be Marlboro, you DECIDE does not feature any cigarette packs and, hence, no pictorial health warnings. It has been suggested that this decision came in anticipation of the large pictorial health warnings which were set to be introduced in Germany in May 2016.⁹³⁹⁶ Both Be Marlboro and you DECIDE were conceived by the advertising agency Leo Burnett which has worked with PMI since they created the Marlboro Man campaign in 1954.⁹³⁹⁷

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Philip Morris International

Other pages on tobacco company marketing:

• Marketing to Youth
• Uganda- BAT Marketing Strategies

Relevant Link

• Maybe You’re the Target: New Global Marlboro Campaign Found to Target Teens

References

The post Be Marlboro: Targeting the World’s Biggest Brand at Youth appeared first on TobaccoTactics.