TI Editorial

TI EDITORIAL

The Dawning of the Age of Unsmoke

Wouldn’t you hate to be a tobacco industry Rip Van Winkle waking up just now after 20 years of sleep. You would be faced with the reality of learning that the greatest cigarette producing and marketing company that ever existed (or at least its descendant) is now advising consumers not to smoke? To tell the truth, I am having trouble assimilating it myself, and I have been an observer to every step of this strange philosophical progression.

In the unlikely event you missed it, in April, Philip Morris International (PMI) launched what it called an “urgent” call to action to change the future for the world’s 1.1 billion smokers, their families and communities.

The Year of Unsmoke, the campaign is called, and a PMI executive described the rationale for it this way: “Burning generates the vast majority of harmful chemicals found in cigarette smoke. Eliminating the combustion dramatically reduces the levels of harmful chemicals. There is a growing consensus among scientists and public health experts that products that do not burn and are backed by science are a much better choice than cigarettes.”

The executive gave consumers a “lecture” (I use that word advisedly—it is the one used in PMI’s statement to the press): “If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you smoke, quit. If you don’t quit, change. That’s unsmoking.”

PMI urges all cigarette manufacturers to join in this campaign, describing it as a “transformative vision.” But I must confess it seems to me more like a military general trying to get ahead of a rearguard action rather than an aggressive effort forward.

Does PMI seriously think that consumers are going to change any of their habits just because tobacco companies tell them to? I doubt it. Does it think that tobacco’s critics will stem their ill will to our industry because of this campaign? Hah! I don’t have to be any better judge of human character than I actually am to know that’s not going to happen. They have already chimed in. Matthew Myers of the Smoke Free Kids organization called the Unsmoke campaign a “sick joke” for Philip Morris to suggest that every day should be promoted as World No Smoking Day and insisted that the company should instead be terminating aggressive cigarette marketing campaigns.

I suppose there may be something I am missing here. There frequently is. But now, as far as Unsmoking is concerned, list me as unconvinced.

Our London correspondent Bob Crew analyzes a study (sponsored by PMI) on how long it might take for smoking to disappear from Great Britain (page 24). It is intriguing, as is Iqbal Lambat’s review of market trends for Oriental tobacco (page 16). On page 22 see Eugene Gerden’s report on the tightening of regulation on Russian tobacco and on page 28, the latest on tobacco in Brazil. And watch for more on the latest tobacco issues in our June issue.

—Christopher Bickers, Editor-In-Chief