IQOS: Philip Morris' global offensive
June 3, 2020
Par: communication@cnct.fr
Dernière mise à jour: June 3, 2020
Temps de lecture: 3 minutes
An object of art, a fashion accessory, a medical treatment, a scientifically advanced gadget. And even, recently, a solution to cheat the boredom of confinement. Philip Morris International (PMI), one of the world’s largest tobacco companies, is promoting its new flagship product, IQOS, as being everything except what it really is: a tobacco consumption device.
After decades of scientific denial, major tobacco companies have been forced to admit that cigarettes cause cancer, as well as a number of serious diseases, including cardiovascular and respiratory.
Now, the tobacco industry is changing gears. In 2019, PMI launched a global campaign called “Unsmoke your world,” urging smokers to give up traditional cigarettes. Society expects us to act responsibly,” she proclaims on her website. "And that's what we're doing by designing a smoke-free future.. »
“ Cigarette sales are falling worldwide and we are going to accelerate this decline ", PMI chief executive Andre Calantzopoulos told the BBC last year.
But PMI's stated intention to make the world smoke-free does not equate to making it tobacco-free.
The company has bet on a new device for introducing nicotine in aerosol form into the lungs of its customers: a system that uses electricity to heat cigarette heets (tobacco sticks) to a temperature of 350°C, which is significantly lower than the temperature of a complete cigarette combustion (around 900°). This type of combustion is thus replaced by a partial combustion, called pyrolysis.
PMI has high expectations for IQOS, particularly in markets where cigarettes are already in decline or considered passé, such as many Western countries and wealthier parts of Asia and Latin America. At PMI’s last shareholder meeting on May 6, 2020, IQOS dominated the discussion, while traditional cigarettes were barely mentioned, according to Michel Legendre of the organization Corporate Accountability, who was at the meeting. IQOS products, which are more profitable per unit than cigarettes, generated $5.6 billion in revenue for PMI last year, up from $700 million in 2016.
To read the analysis of Philip Morris' global offensive with IQOS
