Doctors slam “misleading” Philip Morris tobacco campaign

A group of doctors and healthcare campaign groups have made a formal complaint to the Dutch advertising standards authority Reclame Code Commissie about a new Philip Morris advertising campaign.

They say the campaign is using an AI tool to try to influence European decision-making on tobacco and nicotine products.

The campaign consists of posters in Dutch shopping centres which carry a QR code. The code takes users to a website where they can click buttons to object to tougher rules, which then can be sent directly to the European Commission.

“This is orchestrated lobbying from an industry which kills or makes sick millions of people every year,” Hans Snijder, director of the heart charity Hartstichting told the Volkskrant.

Danielle Cohen told the paper the campaign has been carefully designed to give the impression people can put forward their own, independent position on tobacco products, but “in practice, they are being steered in a certain direction”.

“There are dozens of buttons against tougher rules and just one which allows you to show you back them,” she said.

The campaigners say the campaign should be qualified as tobacco advertising, which is illegal in the Netherlands. In addition, they say, the website does not adhere properly to privacy legislation.

The Dutch health ministry has been urging Brussels to impose “comprehensive restrictions on flavours, maximum nicotine levels and plain packaging” on e-cigarettes and other nicotine products.

The Dutch also want the EU to establish a legal framework for cross-border distance sales of new tobacco products, arguing that these allow consumers to bypass national restrictions.