
Philip Morris suspends social campaign after Reuters exposes young 'influencers' - petethomas
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1SH02K
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save_ferris
IMO, a major vulnerability of social media is ability to coopt the influencer
model into an advertising scheme laundered of accountability, and this keeps
happening.

We recently saw Jake Paul and others covertly pushing loot boxes (glorified
digital gambling) to kids on YouTube.

There needs to be legislation with serious teeth that brings the standards of
online advertising and influence-pushing in line with more established forms
of media.

You know when you're watching paid advertising on TV, but on YouTube you're
banking that whoever you're watching is being honest. And based on stories
like the loot box snafu, those guys were getting six-figure checks to create
those videos.

Such errors of judgment deserve serious consequences, plain and simple.

~~~
sametmax
> You know when you're watching paid advertising on TV

I doubt it.

This idea that somehow there was a time where the medias where full of honest
and competent people seems delusional to me.

I'm assuming it was just so sandboxed and remote from the average citizen that
it felt that way.

~~~
HenryBemis
Watched the Avengers Endgame last night. At some point "AXE body spray" is
mentioned. I am not using AXE (too many chemicals) but telling every teenager
on the planet that 'AXE is the favourite brand of Iron Man' is an absolute
product placement and DEFINITELY product advertisement.

~~~
robrtsql
That's interesting. I thought that everyone was mocking Iron Man for wearing
it (people my age wore Axe when we were in middle school). It hadn't occurred
to me that this was still probably a net positive for Axe.

~~~
HenryBemis
I don't think AXE (whichever company owns the brand) paid a bucketload of
$$$$$$ for the product placement unless their research had shown that this
will make back the investment X5.

On the other side of that paycheck, if producers "just" wanted to make a joke
they would simple have a line such as "you are wearing lavender perfume..?"
(or something equally silly).

And let's of course not forget them beautiful Audis that I remember well, are
'starring' in every Avengers movie. I wonder when that contract will run
out... I searched (duckduckgo) but I didn't get any hits with the information.

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mimixco
This is the same company that puts cigarette ads on billboards next to schools
in third world countries. I would take any suggestion that they want to
"reduce youth smoking" with a big heaping spoon of salt.

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lstodd
IQOS is crap, it failed from the start and this is just a face-saving act.

If anyone is interested, it could never have had enough battery for a decent
puff.

A half-hearted attempt at beating ecigs. It could not have succeded.

~~~
CydeWeys
Not enough for one puff? Why not? Batteries can hold a substantial amount of
energy in them. It seems you are being hyperbolic; what I'm seeing is that
they run for 5-6 minutes on a full battery, which is substantially more than
one puff.

~~~
lstodd
Believe me, I've tried it. Or don't and try it yourself, but smoke a couple
years at least before that, to really feel the edge.

You just can't pack enough battery and a heater in the same form factor to
beat combustion energy output, even if you cut the "cig" length in two as they
did.

edit: besides, their heater design sucks.

~~~
mellowhype
You're wrong, the smoking pen holds about 5-6 mins pers cigarette (Heets), and
the device holds around 20 or more pen recharges.

I've been smoking it since March 2017. I'm on my 2nd device. I've been smoking
regular cigarettes since 2010 before IQOS.

~~~
lstodd
No I'm not.

It's just depends on a person's smoking style.

It was not delivering a satisfactory puff for me when it still had a charge,
then just fell flat because the dimunitive battery couldn't take more.

I also never achieved anywhere close to 20 recharges of the pen. More like
7-9.

This was not acceptable, especially as the tobacco itself was pipe-grade, much
better than the usual nitro paper one finds in cigarettes.

In fact I extracted all the unused tobacco and smoked it in my old pipes.

After that, I'm mixing my own ecig juice and that's much healthier and
nicotine doses are much more controllable.

Also: to hell with Philip Morris.

~~~
mellowhype
A device that recharges the pen only 7-9 times is broken and can be changed
under warranty for no charge. Either that, or your device was a replica,
seriously.

I highly doubt someone's smoking style affects the battery power of the
smoking pen, because, if you smoke from it like a train engine, it's just got
nothing to burn anymore and shuts off - like a normal cigarette. There's
nothing related to the battery itself.

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friedman23
Go on youtube and search for juul videos and look at how many of these videos
are essentially paid advertising targeted at children.

~~~
anonymous5133
A lot of videos also look like promo videos for people selling counterfeit
juul products.

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werber
“conviction to achieve a smoke-free world through socially responsible
practices.”...? Why do they even do press? I'm honestly confused by the drug
dealer saying they are trying to help the problem

~~~
Freak_NL
Because they are feeling the heat brought on by many governments and
legislative bodies worldwide, and a huge societal shift towards zero tolerance
with regards to smoking.

Big tobacco has two ways forward, and they are investing heavily in both.

One, focus the sales of tobacco on developing nations, and get them hooked on
tobacco to the point of saturation. Those nations will follow the developed
nations where smoking is being phased out of society, so they want to increase
their presence there now when opposition is minimal in order to reap the
profits of that investment for decades to come.

Two, migrate from tobacco to e-cigarettes in the developed nations that are
trying to prevent uptake of smoking by children, whilst keeping the existing
body of addicts hooked to tobacco for as long as possible. Pretending to care
is part of that strategy, and makes them look like responsible actors.

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mellowhype
For those of you who didn't read, the article states:

"The company’s internal “marketing standards” prohibit it from promoting
tobacco products with youth-oriented celebrities or “models who are or appear
to be under the age of 25.”

So the age limit in discussion is self imposed by the company, which is 25.
The 'young influencer' mentioned is 21 years old.

I don't see this as anything above a journalistic sensationalism.

~~~
halter73
Sure, but the article also states:

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month decided it would allow
sales of the IQOS device in the United States after a two-year review process
in which Philip Morris repeatedly assured the regulator that it would warn
young people away from the product."

I'm sure Phillip Morris made the FDA well aware of their "self-imposed" age
limit when pushing for FDA approval. I doubt Phillip Morris introduced this
age limit because they suddenly found their moral compass or started to hate
making money. I'm sure they use it to get regulators off their back, so this
definitely isn't a good look for them.

~~~
mellowhype
She was 21 years old. Not 16. Not 17. Not 18. Not 19. Not even 20. But, 21
years old.

Twenty-one.

~~~
hjk05
If they felt that 21 was ok, they could have made that their limit. The point
is that they used the 25 age limit to push through legislation and then.
Immediately broke it when it came time to push the product.

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Throwway32
_Any paid influencers promoting the product also must disclose “any
relationships between you and entities that create labeling for, advertise,
market, and /or promote the products, on your behalf, or at your direction.”_

It's a pity that social networks don't require this as part of their TOS.
There are a number of high profile accounts on Twitter, for example, that seem
to leverage their follower counts and blue checkmarks to promote propaganda
for the highest bidder (and they have multiple admins on supposed verified
individual accounts, churning out said propaganda 24x7).

There are creative ways to hide the payments, such as using books authored by
the influencers, but that's another discussion.

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myth_drannon
I wonder if these influencers are coming from the Russian troll farms that
were trying to spread propaganda during US elections. I would be very
surprised if they kept the same head count.

~~~
burgerzzz
Sureee...

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Despegar
Great synergies here with the Philip Morris of tech.

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doe88
Unbelievable. In 2019 doing that kind of things, it's pure evil.

~~~
colechristensen
What qualifies this as evil?

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lstodd
Must be children.

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cubano
IDK...Is it just me or do I give the individual adult more credit then, it
would seem, most others do?

Russian troll farms...influencers..BFuckingD. People are responsible for their
behavior, and just because some good looking tool on Social does this or votes
for that sure doesn't mean you're absolved from responsibility for choosing to
follow or not.

Sure...kids need to ABSOLUTELY be protected and the punishments to those who
attempt to lead them astray should be as deep as any we have for any criminal.

But draconian speech suppression aimed at adult-to-adult communications? No
thanks.

I just don't see how that eventually leads to anywhere I would want to live.

