Philip Morris exploits loopholes in Israeli smoking ad ban

According to a report by the Jerusalem Post, a new study has shown that Philip Morris International (PMI) has exploited a loophole in the ban on Israeli tobacco advertising.

A study published in the journal "Tobacco Control" analyzed PMI's advertising spending over four years amongst the general population, Haredi community, Arabic speakers, and Russian speakers.

Dr. Amal Khayat stated that due to regulatory changes in tobacco product advertisements, a comparison was made of advertising expenditures for all Philip Morris cigarette brands and the IQOS brand (a type of heated tobacco stick that entered the local market in December 2016).

According to the study, advertising restrictions resulted in decreased marketing expenses for PMI. However, the company exploited legal loopholes in print media.

Even after the law had taken effect, the company continued spending almost 3 million in new shekels (about 6.078 million yuan) on advertising, with a focus on print media, according to chief researcher Yael Bar-Zeev. "While the law limits print advertising to one ad per newspaper, 40% of IQOS ads are huge, two-page ads, effectively doubling the product's ad space while still being considered a single ad under the law.

PMI also utilized QR codes to allow consumers to scan and access more information. According to the study, prior to the implementation of this law, PMI significantly increased its advertising efforts targeting the Haredi community, who previously had the lowest smoking rates in Israel.

Our data shows that since the launch of IQOS electronic cigarettes, 216 targeted advertisements have been released, with 55% aimed at the Haredi community, 6% aimed at Arab communities, and the remainder aimed at Russian-speaking audiences," said Bazelevs CEO. For regular cigarette brands, 87% of advertisements are targeted at the Haredi community.

We expect the company to focus on the demographic of Arab men, who have the highest smoking rates in Israel, rather than a population with almost no smokers," Bar-Zeev said.

After conducting research, the 24th Parliament has decided to eliminate the exemption for printed media advertisements, however, the implementation of this decision has been delayed for seven years. During this period, the use of coupons, QR codes, and advertisements for cigarettes without mandatory non-decorated packaging will be prohibited in printed media.