Tobacco advertising in the Netherlands: an investigation reveals the persistence of prohibited advertising practices

In the Netherlands, an investigation[1] An investigation by journalists from the Voorheen Schaamteloos Randstedelijk (VSR) podcast reveals the extent of the covert practices by which the tobacco industry continues to promote its products, despite the existing advertising ban. Publishing houses, media agencies, influencer agencies, and individual content creators all reportedly agreed, in exchange for payment, to disseminate messages favorable to tobacco and nicotine. These revelations, gathered from anonymous testimonies of industry professionals, shed light on a structured system of circumvention and a code of silence maintained by confidentiality agreements. They echo a reality also found in France, where the strict regulatory framework pushes the industry to intensify its so-called "under-the-radar" initiatives to promote its addictive products through indirect channels.

A workaround system documented by multiple testimonies

The investigation, conducted by Doortje Smithuijsen and Perre van den Brink as part of a series on the resurgence of smoking in popular culture, gathered several firsthand accounts. According to one, a major Dutch publishing house was approached by a tobacco company offering €250,000 for an advertising partnership. This proposal was reviewed internally by a small committee of senior managers who reportedly weighed the potential fine against the expected profits. Other accounts mention an Amsterdam-based influencer agency where e-cigarettes are allegedly made available to staff. Similarly, one of the world's five largest media agencies reportedly has an account linked to a vaping or tobacco brand, hidden from other employees—an unusual practice, according to the cited source. Some tobacco accounts are also said to be managed under code names within several agencies, with employees, contrary to standard practice, having the option to refuse to be assigned to them.

On the influencer front, the podcast reports the case of a regular dinner organizer who was allegedly offered by a tobacco company to cover the bill in exchange for promoting a nicotine product, an offer later accompanied by additional monthly financial compensation. Other accounts mention informal agreements in which influencers are compensated in kind for inviting their friends and family to product launches or private events. These agreements systematically include strict confidentiality clauses, making it difficult to obtain evidence. However, one case was published, with supporting documentation, as early as 2020: the Italian-Dutch influencer Giaro Giarratana, employed by British American Tobacco, regularly appears on his Instagram account with a cigarette or vape in hand. He is also reportedly the founder of a sunglasses brand, one of whose cases features, in black and white, the visual identity of a well-known cigarette brand from the Philip Morris International group.

A phenomenon that goes beyond the strictly advertising sphere

The authors of the study emphasize that these paid practices alone cannot explain the proliferation of depictions of celebrities smoking in the press and of characters smoking or vaping in audiovisual productions. They cite, in particular, several magazine covers featuring celebrities with cigarettes, as well as the recurring presence of characters smoking or vaping in widely distributed series and films, some of which are available on mainstream streaming platforms. This observation is not unique to the Netherlands: the American trade press had already reported this trend in the spring, before the New York Times ne in turn devotes an article to the return of cigarette imagery in popular culture, associated with several productions and personalities in the world of music and cinema.

In the Netherlands, the daily newspaper Trouw He also noted this trend toward the "re-glamorization" of cigarettes, placing it in the context of a visual communication student exhibition that demonstrated, with supporting images, that the glamour of a celebrity photograph does not depend on the presence of a cigarette. The newspaper, however, illustrated its own article with a still from a film showing characters smoking, a sign of the difficulty in escaping this aesthetic once it has become widespread. The podcast authors also point out that this narrative of a return to favor for cigarettes seems self-perpetuating: the more the media talks about it, the more real and spontaneous the phenomenon appears, when in reality it stems from decades of constructing an imagery associating cigarettes with autonomy and rebellion—an imagery whose advertising origins are now widely acknowledged. Thus, even though the great historical campaigns of the type featuring a smoking cowboy now belong to the past, the advertising phenomenon persists, without even being identified as such by the exposed audiences.

Regulations that have massively reduced advertising, without eradicating it

In France, too, tobacco advertising is now much less visible to the general public than it once was, thanks to particularly strict regulations that prohibit all direct advertising. This framework has undoubtedly been effective. Nevertheless, manufacturers continue to circumvent or even violate it in order to promote their tobacco and nicotine products. This advertising is now deployed through more discreet and harder-to-identify channels: opaque partnerships with content creators, product placement in fashion or lifestyle settings, use of visual codes or merchandise evoking cigarette brands, or recourse to influencers who are difficult or impossible for the public to identify as such. These practices are regularly documented by various observatories of the CNCT[2], which ensure continuous monitoring of these circumvention strategies.

These Dutch revelations confirm the need for rigorous application of the adopted texts and highlight the importance of case law in clarifying and strengthening existing legislation. This investigation is published while an ambitious and comprehensive revision of the European Tobacco Products Directive is underway.

©Generation Without Tobacco

AE

[1] Tabaksreclaim is er onder de radar nog steeds, TabakNee, published on July 22, 2026, accessed the same day

[2] Vaping: the CNCT calls for neutral packaging and a ban on online sales, CNCT, published on February 19, 2026, accessed on July 23, 2026