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Worldwide newsand commentTHAILAND: PHILIP MORRIS MOVES TOBLOCK NEW LAW
ASH Thailand has alleged that PhilipMorris International has written to thecountry’s Ministry of Public Health in aneffort to prevent a new law on tobacco
control being passed. The law was due tobe fast-tracked earlier this year followingdelays the public health minister report-edly blamed on the agriculture and financeministries. It has since been furtherdelayed amidst accusations of tobaccoindustry lobbying.If passed, the new law will increase the
legal age for purchasing cigarettes from 18to 20, tighten advertising and marketingbans—including on social media—and
prohibit tobacco industry corporate socialresponsibility initiatives. According toASH Thailand Secretary General PrakitWatheesathokkij, PMI’s letter argued thatThailand’s existing tobacco control laws aresufficient for educating people about theharms of smoking and preventing uptake.
The tobacco industry is up against a for-midable and very creative foe in Thailand,which has a long history of strong tobaccocontrol action, with both ASH Thailandand the Thai Health Promotion Foundationproviding leadership in the Southeast Asianregion. The Thai Health PromotionFoundation’s latest campaign uses deadsmokers’ lungs to send a direct message tosmokers—literally.
The Message From The Lungs openswith blank ink dispersing into water and apaint brush making a bold black stroke oncanvas, with the words: “This is not ordin-ary ink. Because it was the life’s work of aman. A man who spent 50 years of his lifeto make every drop of it…by smokingevery day”.
It goes on to explain how Thai Healthteamed up with the Faculty of Medicine atChulalongkorn University to make inkextracted from the tar in lungs donated bysmokers. The ink was then bottled and usedto create artwork for ads. Samples werealso distributed in public spaces as part ofexhibitions to convince people to quit.
According to Thai Health, the cam-paign has resulted in a five-fold increasein quit smoking program participation.You can read more and view the ad athttp://blogs.bmj.com/tc/2015/05/27/this-artistic-ad-from-thailand-will-make-you-think-and-gasp/
MALAYSIA: COMMITTING TO ANENDGAME DATEThe Malaysian government has recentlyjoined a growing number of countriessetting a target date for smoking preva-lence to fall to below 5%.
The Kuala Lumpur InternationalNicotine Addiction Conference, hosted bythe University of Malaya on April 22–24th and launched by the Minister forHealth, was held as part of Malaysia’scommitment to Articles of 12 and 14 ofthe FCTC. It was attended by 160 partici-pants, mainly from Malaysia andSoutheast Asia, as well as limited partici-pation by countries outside the region,including Nigeria.
During the conference, the Ministerannounced a government target forsmoking prevalence to fall to 15% by2025 and 5% or lower by 2045. Thepoint was made by one speaker that 2045is less than ambitious given an estimated
All articles written by Marita Heflerunless otherwise attributed. Ideas anditems for News Analysis should be sentto: [email protected]
Message From The Lungs. Source: https://vimeo.com/126220314
Artwork created from ‘Message From The Lungs’ ink
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20,000 Malaysians die from tobacco-attributable disease per year. A very long30 years away, it is five years beyond theglobal target of 2040 recently proposed ina Lancet editorial by Professor RobertBeaglehole and colleagues, and far laterthan the 2025 date set by New Zealand.
The Minister also announced additionalfunding for expanding smoking cessationclinics to add to the current 450 clinicsnationwide, and the establishment of atelephone Quitline service. However,research presented at the conference sug-gested far more needed to be done to rollout basic cessation support training to allhealth workers as the current workforce isundertrained, under-informed, lackingconfidence and not providing the level ofsmoking cessation services required toreach the numbers of people who needsupport.
More immediate gains are unlikely to bewon unless a stronger stance is taken by thegovernment with the tobacco industry. Arecent study published in Tobacco Control,SEATCA Tobacco Industry InterferenceIndex: a tool for measuring implementationof the WHO Framework Convention onTobacco Control Article 5.3, indicated theindustry is still very influential in theSoutheast Asian region.
While more needs to be done, there areother encouraging signs. The Malaysiangovernment is incentivising tobaccogrowers to shift to alternate crops, such askenaf (hibiscus cannabinus) from whichfibre can be used to strengthen buildingproducts. Malaysia also appears to bestanding firm in its resolve that tobacco becarved out of the provisions of the TransPacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), amajor free trade agreement that proposesto constrain signatory nations’ sovereignright to control tobacco and other com-modities with public health impacts, suchas alcohol and pharmaceuticals.
The country’s stance against TPPA pro-visions would protect governments’ abilityto enact FCTC provisions and has beenpraised by regional health groups. DrMary Assunta, senior policy advisor to theSoutheast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance,has said: “Excluding tobacco from invest-ment agreements will be a phenomenalchange in how tobacco should be viewed—as a harmful product that kills its custo-mers and should not be accorded the sameprivileges given to other products”.
Amer Siddiq Amer Nordin
Farizah Mohd HairiUniversity Malaya Centre ofAddiction Sciences, Malaysia
Christopher BullenNational Institute for Health
Innovation, New Zealand
WORLD: MARLBORO & FERRARICONTINUE F1 PARTNERSHIPIn May 2015 the Scuderia FerrariFormula One (F1) team and Philip MorrisInternational (PMI) announced they hadrenewed their sponsorship agreementuntil 2018. Although tobacco advertisingwas banned in the sport at the end of the2006 season, is believed that the agree-ment (currently estimated at $160 millionper year) was quietly renewed at a 2014F1 board meeting in Italy, over a yearbefore the public announcement.Previously, it was rumoured that the
partnership might end after the 2011–2015 agreement. In 2013, the long-running PMI/Ferrari winter “Wrooom”
skiing event at the Madonna di Campiglioresort in Italy was cancelled due to theincreasing costs of staging it. Internationalmedia were invited to this event whichfeatured PMI representatives, the ScuderiaFerrari drivers and Ducati MotoGP riders(also sponsored by PMI).Ferrari’s current F1 Team Principal
Maurizio Arrivabene was, until November2014, PMI’s Vice President of ConsumerChannel Strategy and Event Marketing.Arrivabene has also sat on the F1Commission since 2010 as a representa-tive for all of the sport’s sponsors. Thelinks between Scuderia Ferrari and PMIrun much deeper than simply having anex-PMI marketing employee as team prin-cipal: Sergio Marchionne, current CEO ofFerrari’s parent company Fiat S.p.A, is onPMI’s Board of Directors. The world’srichest man, Carlos Slim, also sat onPMI’s Board of Directors until May 2015,and his telecommunications company,Claro, became a sponsor of ScuderiaFerrari in 2014. It was suggested in themedia that one of Slim’s companies couldfill the void should PMI withdraw itssponsorship at the end of 2015.From 2007–2011 the team’s official
name, “Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro” wasused in press conferences, interviews, andin the print press. The team even ran withMarlboro branding at three Grand Prix in2007: Bahrain, Monaco and China.A red, white and black barcode designwas displayed in the same positions forother races until May 2010, when it wasdropped from the cars after criticism thatit was subliminally advertising the cigar-ette brand. The barcode design remainedon the drivers’ and team members’ gearfor the remainder of the season.
In July 2010 the team launched a newlogo for the 2011 season, with manyobserving that it closely resembled theMarlboro chevron. This design is still inuse by the team, and has even crept intoofficial Formula One video game titles. InJuly 2011, Ferrari announced that theywere dropping ‘Marlboro’ from its officialteam title, whilst also confirming that theyhad renewed their partnership with PMIuntil 2015.
At the recent 2015 Monaco Grand Prix,Marlboro advertising boards (external tothe track) included images of ScuderiaFerrari’s four-time Formula One DriversChampion Sebastian Vettel. The advertise-ments include statements such as “Red isInspiration”, “Red is Action” and “Red isInnovation.” Each advertisement alsoincorporates the “Be Marlboro” slogan. Itwas reported that when Vettel was askedabout the images in Monaco, he stated: “Ithink everybody already knows who ourbiggest sponsor is”.
F1’s governing body, the FederationInternationale de l’Automobile firstannounced in 2002 that tobacco sponsor-ship of international motorsport wouldcease by the end of the 2006 season.Despite this, thirteen years later, there isstill a very strong relationship betweenScuderia Ferrari and PMI.
John BakerCentral Victorian Primary Care
Partnership, [email protected]
WORLD: BE MARLBORO, BE…INVISIBLE?Marlboro’s sponsorship of the F1Scuderia Ferrari team has been describedas ‘one of the quietest in sport’. Now, itseems PMI is taking a similarly coyapproach to the global marketing cam-paign ‘Be Marlboro’.
As reported in the May and November2014 issues of News Analysis, the adver-tising campaign, which started in 2012,has been heavily criticised for its use ofyouth-friendly themes and images. It isregistered in over 60 countries, and hasbeen subject to a legal challenge inGermany and fines in Brazil, in both casesfor its clear targeting of youth. Fundedfrom marketing budgets that run into tensof millions of dollars, billboards, posters,point of sale promotions and ‘BeMarlboro’ themed events have been ubi-quitous, especially in countries with weaktobacco control laws.
But while the intent seems to be satur-ation coverage of Be Marlboro in countrieswhere PMI can get away with it, the non-
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profit consumer news site Consumeristrecently reported that PMI has used copy-right muscle to remove a source of scrutiny.
The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids(CTFK), one of several agencies which havebeen monitoring the campaign, recentlycollated several marketing videos anduploaded them to Vimeo, a video-sharingwebsite. The clips were not edited in anyway; they were merely made available todemonstrate how Marlboro markets toyouth. However, shortly after CTFK noti-fied press outlets of the collection, Vimeotook them down due to a copyright requestfrom PMI’s Switzerland office.
The clips showed the diversity andsophistication of the Be Marlboro cam-paign, and included events from Slovakia,Moldova, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia (theonly clip to show guests actually smoking).The Consumerist report notes that theyhave contacted PMI for an explanation ofwhy the copyright notice has forcedremoval of the clips, but (perhaps unsur-prisingly) have not received a reply. PMI’sreaction to attempts to expose the BeMarlboro campaign to sunshine brings tomind a cockroach scuttling for a darkcorner.PMI and Marlboro have taken a public
relations hammering in recent months:US-based comedian John Oliver’s blister-ing expose on tobacco industry tactics on
his show Last Week Tonight in Februarywent viral, helped along by the Twitterhashtag #JeffWeCan, featuring ‘Jeff theDiseased Lung’, Oliver’s take on an honestmascot for the product to replace its iconiccowboy. ‘Jeff ’ looks set to continue tohaunt PMI: in early May it made anappearance at a protest with young peoplefrom across the US outside the annual PMIshareholder meeting in New York.
On the CTFK campaign websitestopmarlboro.org, teens discussing theirimpressions of the Be Marlboro campaignare decisive. As one young woman fromthe Philippines says: “Of course it goeswithout saying that we’re going to pursueour dreams. But don’t bring smoking intothe picture! Yeah, it’s like they’re treatingus like fools. Like we don’t understandwhat’s going on with that ad”.
A petition on the stopmarlboro.orgwebsite targeting government officials inArgentina, Georgia, India, Indonesia,Moldova, Peru, the Philippines, Senegaland Slovenia at stopmarlboro.org hasattracted over 62,000 signatures.
INDIA/WORLD: WORLD BANK DUMPSTOBACCO-SPONSORED EVENTThe World Bank has withdrawn from the12th Annual Asia Pacific Tax Forum, anevent organised by the Indian Council forResearch on International EconomicRelations (ICRIER) and International Tax
Filipino teens react to the Be Marlborocampaign. Source: stopmarlboro.org
A screenshot from young people talking aboutthe Be Marlboro campaign. Source:stopmarlboro.org
A map showing the countries with Be Marlboro trademarks or advertising. Source: stopmarlboro.org
stopmarlboro.org
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and Investment Centre (ITIC). ITIC issponsored by Philip Morris International,Imperial Tobacco, British AmericanTobacco and Japan Tobacco International.The Forum was scheduled to be heldfrom 5-7 May.
The World Bank’s decision came after achallenge by the Indian NGO Institute ofPublic Health in the Delhi High Courtseeking to prevent government officialsparticipating in the conference on thebasis that it would violate Article 5.3 ofthe Framework Convention on TobaccoControl (FCTC). The petition was dis-missed due to the fact that the Forum wasa general conference on tax.
The president of ITIC, Daniel Witt, hadargued that that the Forum would not bea violation of the FCTC because notobacco-related issues were on the agenda.The Delhi high court ruling suggests thisnarrow interpretation of the FCTC is heldby other key institutions responsible forupholding Article 5.3. This is despite thefact that the guidelines for its implementa-tion state that measures should apply inall branches of government that may havean interest in, or capacity to, affect publichealth policies with respect to tobaccocontrol.
With tax a key measure of the FCTC(Article 6) and MPOWER package oftobacco control measures (R being to raisetaxes on tobacco), the World Bank’s lead-ership in withdrawing from the confer-ence provides a powerful counterweightto the misperception that tax policy isunrelated to tobacco control.
UKRAINE: WTO PLAIN PACKCHALLENGE MAY ENDThe Kyiv Post has reported that Ukraine’sprime minster Arseniy Yatsenuk hasexpressed doubts about continuing withUkraine’s challenge of Australia’s tobaccoplain packaging laws through the WorldTrade Organisation (WTO). Ukraine is oneof five countries to have lodged a requestfor consultation. The others are Honduras,
the Dominican Republic, Cuba andIndonesia.The possible change in the government’s
stance follows a protest on May 20 by theCoalition for a Smoke Free Ukraine outsidethe Cabinet of Ministers. ParliamentarianHanna Hopko, head of the Foreign AffairsCommittee, welcomed the Prime Minister’sannouncement and acknowledged that theissue was damaging Ukraine’s internationalreputation. The protest prompted PMYatsenuk to instruct Economy MinisterAivaras Abromavisius to assess the implica-tions of Ukraine’s action and move quicklyto resolve the issue, a step praised in a KyivPost editorial.While the action is welcome, the
Ukraine government has a number of keyministers with previous tobacco industryconnections or a history of public stancessympathetic to the industry’s interests.Assessment of whether to continue thecase has been delegated to deputy eco-nomic and trade minister NataliaMykolska, who has been a supporter ofthe case against Australia. She was tar-geted in the May 20 protest, togetherwith others who have been tobacco indus-try supporters.Others targeted were Svitlana Zaytseva,
the head of Ukraine’s economy ministrydivision responsible for cooperation withthe WTO; Olena Zerkal, currently deputyminister of foreign affairs for Europeanintegration—previously a senior corporateaffairs manager at British AmericanTobacco; and Valeriy Pyatnitskyi, anadvisor to the prime minister with a repu-tation as a lobbyist for tobacco companies.Ukraine is at a legislative crossroads for
tobacco control: the NGO AdvocacyCenter Life, supported by members of par-liament, is pushing for a range of newtobacco control measures including newcigarette pack warnings. The world will bewatching to see if Ukraine takes this stepaway from tobacco industry-supportedchallenges, thereby improving its inter-national reputation and joining the
international community in implementingevidence-based tobacco control measures.
LEBANON: FINANCE MINISTER OPENSTOBACCO FACTORYLebanon’s finance minister Ali HassanKhalil presided over the opening of a newtobacco factory in Beirut in May. Thefactory will nearly triple cigarette produc-tion capacity and will produce a range ofinternational tobacco brands under licence.
In the midst of political disagreementsabout the national budget, Mr Khalilpraised the factory as a productive additionto the national economy —although nofigure was put forward for the additionalcosts likely to accrue to the health caresector as a result of smoking-relateddiseases.
Smoking is responsible for nearly 25% ofmale deaths and 18% of female deaths inLebanon. With smoking prevalence at 34%(adult males), 21% (adult females) andnearly 18% of boys, the country has a longway to go to meet its obligations under theFCTC. Currently it falls short on advertis-ing bans and taxation, health warnings (textwarnings only, which cover 40% of thepack) and taxation, which makes up only33% of the retail price, compared to theWHO benchmark of 75%.
No doubt the tobacco industry will bedelighted to have such a strong ally in thefinance minister, who is clearly untroubledby FCTC provisions that call on govern-ments to protect government policy fromtobacco industry interests, prevent incen-tives for the tobacco industry to establishand run its business, and implementdemand reduction measures.
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