Philip Morris France offers itself a platform in L’Opinion

In an op-ed published on July 3, 2020 in the daily newspaper l'Opinion, Jeanne Pollès, president of Philip Morris France, develops an argument in favor of new tobacco products, and calls on public authorities to reconsider the place of cigarette manufacturers in society, presented as being able to participate in the development of ambitious public policies, particularly on health. This op-ed, of which the Génération Sans Tabac platform offers a decryption, is a summary of untruths and elements of cigarette manufacturer language.

A promotional operation

First, we can see in this column a circumvention of French law, prohibiting any form of direct or indirect advertising of tobacco products. Jeanne Pollès is in fact promoting new products, presented as a less harmful alternative to traditional cigarettes. In fact, the lesser danger of new tobacco products is invalidated by independent scientific studies. This strategy of successively presenting new self-proclaimed solutions to reduce the health risk of its own products is a constant of the tobacco industry ("light" cigarettes, menthol, filter, etc.).

Relaxing the French regulatory framework

Beyond a simple promotional operation, this is a real plea aimed at making the tobacco industry a legitimate and indispensable partner in the development of public health policies. The objective is therefore to redefine the current regulatory framework, which underlines the need to exclude the tobacco industry in the processes of development and implementation of anti-smoking policies, a condition sine qua non of their effectiveness. By definition, the interests of the tobacco industry are fundamentally incompatible with those of public health.[1]. Systematically, cigarette companies oppose the implementation of measures to prevent and control smoking, which is directly responsible for more than eight million people throughout the world.

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