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Transcript

The Complaint by

the Civil Society

For civil society, this was an achievement that combined advocacy with a strategy of offensive litigation, which allowed us to gain experience in defending and promoting tobacco control policies.

Thank you.

PMI - Coltabaco

Answer

What did the civil society complaint achieve?

The video was removed or taken off the internet by PMI and Leo Burnett.

It demonstrated the PMI and Leo Burnett were violating Colombia’s tobacco control law, which establishes a comprehensive ban on advertising.

We succeeded in holding an advertising agency accountable for its violations of the law banning advertising. Before, we had only targeted the tobacco industry.

There are no economic penalties for PMI and Leo Burnett. We hope to secure those in the future.

Thank you for the opportunity to share the experience of my country, COLOMBIA.

In 2013, Philip Morris International launched its “Be Marlboro” campaign, a global marketing campaign to promote Marlboro cigarettes.

In response to the civil society complaint, the government office opened an investigation, requesting an explanation from Philip Morris International and Leo Burnett.

What explanations did Philip Morris International give?

- That the video is NOT an advertisement

- That PMI “never ordered or suggested its release”

- That the video does not constitute a commercial communication, “which was never intended to be divulged or disseminated through any communication system, and much less to be seen by the public”

- That the release of the video was a malicious act by a third party subcontracted by Leo Burnett or an employee of the agency, who decided of his/her own accord to upload the video to the internet, possibly to take credit as the video’s producer.

- That, due to the above, when PMI learned of the video, it demanded that Leo Burnett take it down, making the agencyresponsible for any breach of the law.•

The campaign came to Colombia in 2014, in the form of a video on social networks, and has the characteristics of a global marketing campaign for teens:

- Images and themes that associate smoking with a teen lifestyle: risk-taking, exploration, freedom

- It sends the message,

“Don’t Be a Maybe. Be Marlboro.”

This was the legal analysis of the campaign.

- Colombia has a tobacco control law that establishes a total ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship. Act 1335 of 2009, the tobacco control law, was reviewed.

- It was concluded that the Be Marlboro campaign has all the characteristics of marketing to teens, violating the Colombian law.

- Therefore, a complaint was filed with government authorities calling for an investigation of violation of Act 1335.

- The complaint was filed against Philip Morris International and the ad agency that produced the video, Leo Burnett, as those responsible for the “Don’t Be a Maybe. Be Marlboro” campaign.•

This is the video that promoted the “Don’t Be a Maybe. Be Marlboro” campaign in Colombia.

When civil society learned of the existence of

this video, we undertook the following activities:

Screenshot the communication pieces of the

Be Marlboro campaign

Copied the video’s website before they took it

down:

Denounced the campaign in the media

Analyzed the legality of the “Don’t Be a

Maybe. Be Marlboro” campaign

Legal and communications strategies to exert

pressure on PMI in Colombia

“Don’t Be a Maybe. Be Marlboro”

YUL FRANCISCO DORADO MAZORRA

Corporate Accountability International

www.stopcorporateabuse.org

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