Philip Morris International has suspended the use of influencers to promote its IQOS heated tobacco products after it emerged that an IQOS ambassador was younger than 25 – the minimum age its own policies prescribe for influencer marketing campaigns.
A published on Friday (10 May) found that one of Philip Morris' IQOS social media ambassadors in Russia, Alina Tapilina, was only 21 and had been paid by the tobacco giant to promote heated tobacco products online.
Philip Morris which is the minimum age permitted for tobacco influencers in the UK, but not elsewhere in the world.
The company said: "Upon learning of these allegations, PMI immediately initiated and concluded an internal investigation and took swift action to address an instance of influencer engagement in breach of our digital influencer guidance.
"We were deeply disappointed to discover this breach and are grateful that it was brought to our attention in order that we could take swift and comprehensive steps to address our mistake.
"We immediately suspended our product-related digital influencer actions to avoid the risk of similar incidents occurring in the future. We are not proud that a mistake was made, but what really matters is outcomes."
In Tapilina’s post, which was still viewable on Instagram at the time this article was published, she holds IQOS 3 products and describes some of the changes in the new version of IQOS, including "less smell", a quicker charging time and that it is "90 per cent safer than cigarettes", asking her social media followers if they have "switched to iQOS yet".
±±¾©Èü³µpk10 for Tobacco-Free Kids president Matthew Myers said the Reuters investigation demonstrates "Philip Morris’ utter lack of sincerity when they promise to market IQOS only to existing smokers and not to youth and non-smokers – a promise the FDA relied on when it recently authorised the sale of IQOS in the United States."
Recently, the US Food & Drug Administration authorised the sale of IQOS in the US, but with strict caveats including that it markets the products responsibly.
In the UK, the into the use of influencers to promote a rival's e-cigarette product, Vype, including social media posts by singer Lily Allen and fashion label House of Holland. Other tobacco giants told PRWeek that they use
Myers said: "Their claim to market IQOS only to existing smokers has been exposed as the fraud that it is.
"For months, Philip Morris has marketed IQOS on social media to millions of young people, and they didn’t stop until they were caught. While Philip Morris tried to spin the issue as an isolated mistake of paying a 21-year-old social media influencer in Russia, Reuters documented multiple examples of how they have marketed IQOS on Instagram, often using young, attractive influencers."
±±¾©Èü³µpk10 for Tobacco-Free Kids claims that from March 2018 to March 2019, social media posts using the hashtag #iqos have been viewed 179 million times on Instagram and Twitter, according to social media analytics tool Keyhole.
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