Tobacco control advocates have unmasked evidence that Philip Morris International (PMI) is still investing in and expanding its global cigarette business, despite claiming that it is building a “smoke-free future”.
Advocates at United States-based not-for-profit, Corporate Accountability, disclosed this on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, during PMI’s annual shareholder meeting, where they confronted the company’s executives about continued investment in traditional cigarettes.
Nigerian Current reports that tobacco kills up to half of its users who don’t quit, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). It kills more than 8 million people each year, including an estimated 1.3 million non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke. Around 80 per cent of the world’s 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries, including Nigeria.
In 2015, local advocates unmasked a controversial deal between PMI and the Nigerian government to flood the country with 122 million ‘units’ of cigarettes in just seven months.
In January 2024, the Federal Government revealed that more than 26,800 annual deaths in Nigeria are attributable to tobacco-related diseases.
CA’s revelation falsifies PMI’s attempt to rebrand itself as a responsible company committed to weaning itself off its killer products.
In 1954, a PMI executive claimed that “[I]f we had any thought or knowledge that in any way we were selling a product harmful to consumers, we would stop business tomorrow.”
In 1972, a PMI executive claimed that “if our product is harmful, we’ll stop making it.”
In 2023, PMI claimed in its annual report that, “We don’t need to imagine a future without cigarettes. We are delivering one.”
Yet the numbers presented to shareholders tell a very different story: cigarettes remain a critical part of PMI’s business, and the corporation continues to invest in cigarette advertising and infrastructure.
In particular, nearly two-thirds of PMI’s total net revenues (63.5 per cent) are from the sale of traditional cigarettes. The rest are from other tobacco and nicotine products.
PMI holds 24 per cent of the international cigarette market. Marlboro, the most-sold cigarette brand in the world, has increased its market share from 9.2 per cent to 9.8 per cent in the last decade.
PMI continues to invest in cigarette production, including the building of a new cigarette factory in Tanzania.
“We cannot forget that PMI has spent more than 70 years lying and manipulating people for money,” said Daniel Dorado, Tobacco Campaign Director at Corporate Accountability. “Since tobacco executives can no longer deny the danger of cigarettes, they’re attempting to distance themselves and rebrand their industry. But the truth is they continue to get rich from selling cigarettes and other harmful tobacco and nicotine products. Profit is and has always been their primary concern – even at the expense of people’s lives.”
When asked on Wednesday how the corporation squares its increasing reliance on Marlboro sales with its publicly stated goal of moving away from cigarettes, executives were clear that they intend to maintain their market share of cigarettes.
Advocates on Wednesday also addressed the fact that, contrary to its promises, PMI continues to market traditional cigarettes in countries where it has introduced its emerging tobacco products.
There is also ample evidence that PMI is still marketing cigarettes to children, especially in Global South countries.
“For decades, people around the world have come together to protect youth from Big Tobacco’s abuses. Now, we are at a pivotal moment to prevent corporations like PMI from addicting another generation to tobacco and nicotine, no matter the form. To do so, we must make Big Tobacco pay for its past abuses, and prevent it from wreaking more damage on people and the planet,” said Dorado.
