Cheat-Not-Burn. How Big Tobacco is luring in new smokers
“Smoke by any other name” sounds poetic, you’d expect it to be a line from a Shakespearean play or Keatsian sonnet. But it is none of those. Instead, it’s the scathing title of a 2017 Swiss study revealing that “smoke-free” heat-not-burn (HNB) products like IQOS or Glo mislead consumers as they produce smoke, just like traditional cigarettes. What’s more, HNB encourage addiction, acting as a gateway for further tobacco consumption.
Relinquishing the usual diplomacy, the Swiss paper is brutally clear, stating “advertising slogans like ‘heat-not-burn’ are no substitute for science”. Products like IQOS produce smoke and should be regulated as such. Over the following eight years, numerous additional impartial academic studies have further strengthened this finding. Most corroborate, concluding that, “the classification of these products, including IQOS, as “heat-not-burn” or “non-combustion” is dubious”. Tellingly, the word “smoke” (not “vapor”) is consistently used to describe the emissions of so-called heat-not-burn products.
This flies in the face of Big Tobacco’s huge marketing and branding campaigns, promising “smoke-free” futures and “vapour” solutions. The scientific finding should also overthrow the products’ regulatory status as a “novel tobacco product” which hinged on the concept that smoke was replaced by vapour. With this status, standard cigarette marketing rules do not apply. Indeed, researchers speculate that brands like PMI seem to be “abstracting the definition of smoke” to avoid complying with “ambiguously worded laws”.
… Another round of regulation dodging?
So, why are brands like Phillip Morris International (PMI) and British American Tobacco (BAT) pushing HNB products in the first place?
At first glance, the obvious answer seems to be that it’s just another Big Tobacco attempt to circumvent hard-won regulations around advertising rules. The latest saga in a cat-and-mouse game, designed to help them always stay one step ahead of the law, and public opinion.
We’ve seen it before, especially in the context of fake health claims. In the 1950s, when health awareness around smoking increased, Big Tobacco swiftly introduced filters to lull consumers into a false sense of security. As the crackdown on tobacco advertising took off, the brands swiftly took to sponsoring sporting events to imply that athletes used them. Today, as one paper puts it, Big Tobacco is up to old tricks, using HNB products to position themselves as “champions of harm reduction”.
Another well-loved tactic of Big Tobacco is to appeal to young people. In 1999, the UK government unearthed confidential marketing documents, and found statements like “We need to use as many media vehicles as possible to target new entrants/new recruits”. Mounting research (and just plain social media scrolling) finds that Big Tobacco are trying to make products like IQOS and Glo aspirational for young people. Or in the words of one Stanford paper, brands like PMI seek to position HNB products as key to being “an attractive and high-status person”.
… Or something more sinister?
Targeting young consumers so heavily contradicts Big Tobacco’s public claims that they are only interested in converting traditional cigarette smokers to less harmful alternatives. While there is no conclusive research, studies imply that the average age of heavy smokers is upwards of 50 years. However, there is little to no HNB advertising aimed at this group from brands like PMI or BAT.
Advertising is almost exclusively geared towards young people using social media sites like Instagram. In 2019, it was uncovered by Reuters that PMI even broke its own loose guidelines by employing influencers under the age of 25.
This is where a darker theory starts to unfold. Some researchers speculate that HNB products are acting as a Trojan horse to entice young people over to nicotine addiction. The 2017 Swiss paper concluded that the reduced heat tends to lead to less satisfying hits over time, while still creating a dependency. It finds that users are more exposed to the risk of becoming traditional cigarette smokers as the addiction takes hold.
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It makes a lot of sense. What young person will want to lug around a charger, spare tobacco and IQOS device to a night club? Invariably, as the night wears on and the nicotine craving increases, they will be drawn to the huddle of smokers outside. If they are attending one of the many Big Tobacco-sponsored events in places like Indonesia, they can easily buy packs from beautiful young women standing around.
[Smoke] Vapour and mirrors
No matter how much we may want to believe Big Tobacco will turn a corner, the harsh reality is that their revenue relies on creating and satisfying nicotine addiction. They’re not trying hard to convert the existing lucrative cigarette market. There’s little to zero interaction with the 30% of lung cancer patients who continue to smoke after their diagnosis.
Instead, we see costly adverts for IQOS appear on Instagram to young people with taglines like, “Curious to discover where this leads you?”, or “Why not refer a loved one?”. The real intentions are clear; they’re looking to create more — not less — smokers.
HNB products hide behind a smokescreen (or should we say vapour screen) of false health claims to ensnare target customers. They boast of “smoke-free futures” while selling products that product smoke. They talk of switching to healthier alternatives, while launching campaigns to youths who don’t (yet) have addictions.
HNB is surely a hoax, by any other name.
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Independent Journalism commissioned by Wildpouch® | Never Funding Tobacco®
