Philip Morris International (PMI) has suspended a global social media marketing campaign in response to inquiries into the company’s use of young personalities to sell IQOS, PMI’s new “heated tobacco” device.
The company’s internal marketing standards prohibit it from promoting tobacco products with youth-oriented celebrities or “models who are or appear to be under the age of 25.”
Reuters sent several photographs, including one from an influencer in Moscow who lists her age as 21, to PMI early last week for a comment. In response PMI launched an internal investigation into the posts and photographs in question and subsequently suspended their campaign.
“We have taken the decision to suspend all of our product-related digital influencer actions globally,” PMI told Reuters. “Whilst the influencer in question is a legal age adult smoker, she is under 25 and our guidance called for influencers to be 25+ years of age. This was a clear breach of that guidance … No laws were broken. However, we set high standards for ourselves and these facts do not excuse our failure to meet those standards in this instance.”