Pakistan: Tobacco industry took advantage of pandemic to promote new products

The tobacco industry has exploited the Covid-19 pandemic to boost sales of its products and boost its image, particularly online, in many countries. In Pakistan, British American Tobacco used influencers to promote its new products on social media.

Since the beginning of the health crisis, the tobacco industry has not hesitated to use the same narrative as governments and health professionals in its marketing campaigns. It actively promotes its new tobacco and nicotine products as risk-free alternatives. The tobacco industry is thus resuming communication promoting supposedly safer products despite the lack of established evidence.

Pakistan, a key market for the tobacco industry

A recent report published by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ)[1] revealed that Pakistan has become a marketing hotspot for new tobacco products, particularly British American Tobacco's (BAT) VELO brand nicotine pouches. BAT launched VELO in Pakistan in December 2019, with a campaign led by the tobacco company's public relations agency, Ogilvy Pakistan. BAT's director of new products, Paul Lageweb, identified Pakistan as a "key test market" for these new products, calling it "BAT's most exciting opportunity." Tobacco consumption continues to grow in Pakistan due to a lack of awareness about its dangers, low prices, aggressive marketing by the tobacco industry, and a steadily growing population.[2]The country has a population of 208 million, two-thirds of whom are under 30.[3].

VELO and other BAT products are extremely popular in Pakistan due to the manufacturer's "reassuring" narrative that they want to provide "potentially reduced-risk alternative nicotine products to adult smokers who want to quit smoking." BAT heavily promotes the "harm reduction" argument in its product presentations, and the tobacco company seeks to present itself as "part of the solution" to the tobacco epidemic.[4].

The massive use of social networks to attract young people

As revealed by the BIJ investigation, BAT recently invested more than $1 billion in a global marketing campaign using influencers to promote its nicotine products, including VELO.[5]For Pakistan, 40 young influencers were hired to promote the product online, including on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, using the hashtag #openthecan. The hashtag has been viewed more than 13 million times and has a potential audience of more than 181 million. The influencers emphasize the discreet and trendy nature of nicotine pouches in their advertising pitch.

BAT regularly uses social media to promote its products. In Sweden, the #LyftSnus campaign (Lyft is a product similar to VELO) was viewed over 15 million times, also on TikTok. Internet users were invited to post videos of themselves using these nicotine pouches. Through targeted campaigns, the tobacco industry seeks to recruit new consumers to address the decline in sales of traditional cigarettes, but also to maintain confusion between this type of product (tobacco-free nicotine pouches) and snus, which contains tobacco but is banned in many markets.[6].

Since these pouches do not contain tobacco, they are exempt from the regulations that apply to these products. This is particularly the case with the current advertising bans on tobacco products, adopted in most countries. The goal of manufacturers in positioning themselves across the entire spectrum of nicotine products is to offer several entry points into nicotine addiction, with possible co-consumption and switching from one product to another, thanks to the particularly addictive nature of nicotine.

In Pakistan, according to the global youth tobacco survey, approximately 10% of 13-15 year olds regularly consume tobacco products.

Keywords: Pakistan, nicotine pouch, VELO, BAT, social media

©Generation Without Tobacco

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[1] Matthew Chapman, New products, old tricks? Concerns big tobacco is targeting youngsters, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, February 21, 2021, accessed June 28, 2021 [2] Musaddique Hussain, Abdul Majeed, Imran Imran, Muhammad Fawad Rasool, Ikhlaq Hussain, Qasim Barkat, Ximei Wu, Pakistan: time for stronger enforcement on tobacco control, British Medical Journal Blog, December 12, 2019, accessed June 28, 2021 [3] Goujon Anne, Wazir Asif, Gailey Nicholas, “Pakistan: A country of more than 200 million inhabitants lagging behind in the demographic transition”, Population & Societies, 2020/4 (No. 576), p. 1-4. DOI: 10.3917/popsoc.576.0001. [4] Yves Martinet, Emmanuelle Béguinot, Pascal Diethlem, Nathalie Wirth, Nicotine industry: risk reduction, an exclusively financial objective, the Practitioner's Review, January 2021, volume 71, number 1, 2021;71(1);27-32 [5] Tobacco Free Generation, BAT invests £1bn to promote new products to young people, February 23, 2021, accessed June 28, 2021 [6] Tobacco Free Generation, Snus or nicotine pouches? The industry confuses the issue, June 22, 2021, accessed June 28, 2021 National Committee Against Smoking |