In case you missed it, yesterday was No Smoking Day.
No-one can accuse Philip Morris of missing an opportunity to promote its relentless anti-smoking campaign and there, up with the larks on Good Morning Britain, was Peter Nixon, MD of Philip Morris UK.
The only problem was, the interviewer was professional antagonist Piers Morgan.
I'll leave you to judge how the 13-minute interview went. Personally I found parts of it quite uncomfortable to watch and the Mail Online's subsequent headline didn't beat about the bush:
I get that it's not realistic to expect Philip Morris to stop selling cigarettes any time soon. Shareholders would be in uproar and, as Nixon says, consumers would simply switch to other brands.
But, I'm sorry, there is something nauseatingly hypocritical about a company that repeatedly urges smokers to quit or switch to a 'better' product while continuing to not only sell cigarettes worldwide but to actively promote them (via advertising) in countries such as Singapore.
It is disingenuous too for PM to predominantly target its anti-smoking campaign at UK consumers when the company's share of the UK market is, I believe, less than ten per cent and the principal impact will be felt by competitors whose market share is far bigger.
While part of me felt sympathy for Nixon as he struggled to answer his inquisitors (the question about his salary was a bit intrusive), the reality is that as long as Philip Morris sells cigarettes whilst sticking rigidly to its 'quit smoking' mantra, accusations of hypocrisy will never be far away.
As I've said before, a more logical and defendable position has to be that adopted by companies such as British American Tobacco, JTI and Imperial.
BAT, for example, talks not of quitting the cigarette market but of "extending choice" by offering consumers a range of products including e-cigarettes and heat not burn.
JTI is equally committed to harm reduction but a page on its website is quite explicit: “We believe in the freedom of adults to choose whether they smoke or not.”
As for Imperial, chief executive Alison Cooper made that company's position clear last year:
"I think in terms of the current cigarette smoking population, many of them very much enjoy smoking. We know it’s a controversial product but therefore it’s even more important that responsible companies still continue to deliver that product to smokers, so I see that being a very important part, still, of Imperial’s story, but at the same time we very much want to develop the vaper business, Blu and Myblu in particular, and really start seeing smokers switch more into those products.
In contrast, and however well-intentioned they may be (Philip Morris responds to accusations of “staggering hypocrisy”), PM's position leaves the company wide open to the sort of attack Peter Nixon experienced yesterday on GMB, which in turn lead to this rather desperate attempt at damage limitation:
We know @piersmorgan doesn’t pull his punches… but neither do we. Not when it comes to #SmokeFree alternatives and definitely not on #NoSmokingDay 🥊 pic.twitter.com/WNUaHajCwh
— Philip Morris UK (@PhilipMorrisUK) March 13, 2019
There was also this brief exchange with Forest:
“There’s no reason why people should smoke anymore.” We support alternative products but the reason millions of people still smoke is because they enjoy smoking more than the alternative. As long as @PhilipMorrisUK sells cigarettes it should respect and defend that choice. https://t.co/O7WLMdmKkV
— Forest (@Forest_Smoking) March 13, 2019
Our main goal is to give to the 1.1B smokers the opportunity to make better & informed choices to switch to better alternatives. That’s why we're investing to develop & assess our portfolio of less harmful alternatives in order to meet their varying preferences.
— Philip Morris UK (@PhilipMorrisUK) March 13, 2019
Extending choice is an honourable goal. But if consumers make an informed decision to smoke rather than quit or switch to alternative products you have a duty as a manufacturer to defend that choice. Instead you imply that smokers are stupid for not making a ‘better’ choice.
— Forest (@Forest_Smoking) March 13, 2019