{"id":4137,"date":"2018-01-12T21:16:47","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T21:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4137"},"modified":"2018-01-12T21:16:47","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T21:16:47","slug":"philip-morris-international-getting-out-of-the-tobacco-business-huh-what-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4137","title":{"rendered":"Philip Morris International getting out of the tobacco business? Huh, what now?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Philip Morris International this week made the somewhat shocking announcement that it plans to abandon tobacco<\/a> altogether as its “New Year’s Resolution” and will focus on “electronic alternatives,” (Apparently, that means e-cigarettes).<\/p>\n

This pronouncement raised some serious eyebrows … and skepticism. PMI (a separate entity from Altria, which owns tobacco brands in the U.S.) is a huge player on the worldwide tobacco market. PMI went so far as to create a website: smokefreefuture.co.uk <\/strong><\/a>\u00a0where people can get information on quitting smoking. And by the way, you can only click on that link if you live outside the U.S. I guess they don’t want to help Americans quit smoking.<\/p>\n

Sounds all well and good, right? Well, noooot so fast.<\/p>\n

First of all, PMI, the company that sold its customers the disease, is now selling them the cure — e-cigarettes. And in its “we’re quitting tobacco” campaign, the company is pushing its e-cigarette products. So, this appears to be an attempt at simply promoting its e-cigarette brands.<\/p>\n

Secondly, if PMI is getting out of the tobacco business, why is the company still fighting plain packaging laws and other restrictions on tobacco marketing worldwide.<\/p>\n

From a Daily Mail<\/a> article:<\/p>\n

The Truth Initiative argues that if it were seriously anti-smoking now, PMI would cease sales and production of cigarettes altogether, but evidence suggests that the company may not be in such a hurry to make that happen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Beginning in July, Reuters<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0published a series of PMI documents that reveal the company’s correspondences and meetings with delegates from various countries, in secret efforts to undermine the World Health Organization’s global anti-smoking Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).<\/p>\n

Thirdly, \u00a0there appears to be zero timetable for dropping out of the tobacco business. As Truth Initiative points out, last year, PMI sold 565.5 billion cigarettes. They aren’t getting out anytime soon.<\/p>\n

From the Fortune commentary<\/a>, written by Matthew Myers, head of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids:<\/p>\n

These ads should have run on April Fools\u2019 Day instead.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is the height of hypocrisy for PMI to proclaim that it is helping solve the tobacco problem while it aggressively markets cigarettes\u2014especially in low- and middle-income countries\u2014and fights proven policies to reduce tobacco use and save lives. This advertising campaign should be seen for what it is: an effort to divert attention from the fact that PMI remains a primary cause of the smoking problem, not the solution.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, PMI set no deadline for actually giving up cigarettes. If the company is truly committed to a smoke-free future, it should actively support the proven policies to reduce smoking that are endorsed by an international public health treaty, the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. These include significant tobacco tax increases, comprehensive smoke-free laws, tobacco advertising bans, and graphic health warnings on cigarette packs. These policies apply equally to all tobacco companies, and supporting them would not put PMI at a competitive disadvantage.<\/em><\/p>\n

Instead, the company has led the fight against these policies around the world. A 2017 investigative report by Reuters<\/a> revealed a massive, secret PMI campaign aimed at \u201cbringing to heel the world\u2019s tobacco control treaty.\u201d From Australia to Uruguay to Thailand, the corporation has filed expensive lawsuits that challenge strong tobacco control laws and seek to intimidate other countries into inaction.<\/em><\/p>\n

PMI\u2019s latest claims are no more credible. Until the company stops marketing cigarettes and fighting efforts to reduce smoking, its claimed commitment to a smoke-free future should be seen as another public relations stunt, not a serious effort to reduce the death and disease caused by its products.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, it certainly seems PMI is simply blowing smoke. And not really fooling very many people, either.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philip Morris International this week made the somewhat shocking announcement that it plans to abandon tobacco altogether as its “New Year’s Resolution” and will focus on “electronic alternatives,” (Apparently, that means e-cigarettes). This pronouncement raised some serious eyebrows … and skepticism. PMI (a separate entity from Altria, which owns tobacco brands in the U.S.) is … Continue reading Philip Morris International getting out of the tobacco business? Huh, what now?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[755],"tags":[756],"class_list":["post-4137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philip-morris-interntional","tag-philip-morris-international"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/47BC9EEA00000578-5233401-The_big_tobacco_company_laid_out_its_new_initiatives_in_full_pag-m-7_1515021579641.jpg?fit=632%2C791&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-14J","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4074,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4074","url_meta":{"origin":4137,"position":0},"title":"Reuters India investigation: Philip Morris definitely targeting young people","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"August 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Interesting read here for my Indian readers on how India is threatening to crack down against Philip Morris International with some kind of \"punitive action\" for violating that country's anti-tobacco laws prohibiting marketing cigarettes to minors. The Indian Healthy Ministry sent a warning letter to PMI after a Reuters investigation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "India"","block_context":{"text":"India","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=856"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/marlboro-kiosk.jpg?fit=876%2C696&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/marlboro-kiosk.jpg?fit=876%2C696&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/marlboro-kiosk.jpg?fit=876%2C696&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/marlboro-kiosk.jpg?fit=876%2C696&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4166,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4166","url_meta":{"origin":4137,"position":1},"title":"Philip Morris stock crashes","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"April 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Woot! This story made my heart warm. Philip Morris International (a company split off from Altria that focuses specifically on the tobacco market outside of the U.S.) stock dropped 18 percent on April 19, partly because sales of its iQos product -- a device that heats a tobacco plug without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philip Morris Interntional"","block_context":{"text":"Philip Morris Interntional","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=755"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/1000x-1.png?fit=1000%2C562&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/1000x-1.png?fit=1000%2C562&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/1000x-1.png?fit=1000%2C562&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/1000x-1.png?fit=1000%2C562&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4386,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4386","url_meta":{"origin":4137,"position":2},"title":"Philip Morris might stop selling cigarettes in the UK?","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"August 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Philip Morris International made a seemingly startling claim the other day \u2013 that the company is looking to drop cigarettes altogether in the United Kingdom within 10 years. PMI is a spin-off of Altria, which was the umbrella corporation over the old Philip Morris company in the U.S. PMI runs\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/iQOS-Advertising-Launch.jpg?fit=960%2C561&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/iQOS-Advertising-Launch.jpg?fit=960%2C561&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/iQOS-Advertising-Launch.jpg?fit=960%2C561&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/iQOS-Advertising-Launch.jpg?fit=960%2C561&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3751,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3751","url_meta":{"origin":4137,"position":3},"title":"Philip Morris International earnings, revenue down … big time","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"February 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Great story! Philip Morris International's earnings and revenue are dropping, dropping faster than forecast by the company. Philip Morris is a spin-off from Altria, which handles Philip Morris' domestic production of cigarettes. According to several stories I came across, Philip Morris' \u00a0revenues dropped 11 percent at the end of 2015,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philip Morris Interntional"","block_context":{"text":"Philip Morris Interntional","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=755"},"img":{"alt_text":"PMI","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/PMI.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4098,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4098","url_meta":{"origin":4137,"position":4},"title":"Philip Morris International trying to bring back the Council for Tobacco Research","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"October 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh, this is too rich. Philip Morris International, the international wing of Altria, has proposed setting up something called \"A Foundation for a Smokefree World.\" The World Health Organization has urged world governments not to get involved with the foundation, pointing out the pretty glaring conflict of interest. Here's the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philip Morris Interntional"","block_context":{"text":"Philip Morris Interntional","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=755"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/WHOGeneva008.jpg?fit=1200%2C791&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/WHOGeneva008.jpg?fit=1200%2C791&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/WHOGeneva008.jpg?fit=1200%2C791&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/WHOGeneva008.jpg?fit=1200%2C791&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/WHOGeneva008.jpg?fit=1200%2C791&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3653,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3653","url_meta":{"origin":4137,"position":5},"title":"Crikey! Australia kicks international Big Tobacco’s butt … again","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"December 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Yet another major legal victory for Australia in its long-running battle against Big Tobacco. Specifically, Australia defeated Philip Morris International, which has been one of the corporations fighting Australia for the past five to 10 years over that nation's plain-packaging laws. Initially, the government of Australia won in the Australian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Australia"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/AustralianFlag.jpg?fit=1200%2C991&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/AustralianFlag.jpg?fit=1200%2C991&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/AustralianFlag.jpg?fit=1200%2C991&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/AustralianFlag.jpg?fit=1200%2C991&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/AustralianFlag.jpg?fit=1200%2C991&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}