Boston Globe Publishes Philip Morris Ads
Philip Morris International has been running sponsored content in the Boston Globe, in the print and online editions, as part of an image-polishing campaign. In these paid articles, PMI positions itself as trying to help smokers by using "science" to create a new product that is less harmful. The company is positioning itself as having the answer to a problem it created--and continues to aggressively promote.
Tobacco Free Mass has been working to raise awareness of the hypocrisy -- and danger -- of Phillip Morris International's efforts. We have requested that the Globe's CEO honor her newspaper's policy against running tobacco ads, a policy that has been in place since 1999.
Our Chair and Vice Chair published an Op Ed in CommonWealth Magazine asking the Globe to honor its 1999 policy and stop running the ads.
An Op-Ed column by a Globe editorial writer calls out Philip Morris International for trying to polish its image and undo our strong tobacco laws in advance of a full rollout of its new IQOS heated cigarettes. The Boston Globe's coverage of tobacco issues in Massachusetts has historically been intelligent and thoughtful, and this editorial is no exception. The paper's reporters and editors have seen through the tobacco industry's smokescreen, and they continue to, as today's editorial column shows. This makes the fact that the Globe's business operation is willfully playing into the hands of the tobacco industry even more outrageous.
Senator John Keenan and Rep. Danielle Gregoire, sponsors of the landmark Act Modernizing Tobacco Control, the successful flavored tobacco legislation that passed in 2019 and is now being targeted by tobacco lobbyists, responded to the Globe's Op Ed with a letter to the editor pledging to stay vigilant and defend the law.
Philip Morris is doing all this because it wants to stop our strong tobacco laws in Massachusetts!
The Boston Globe should stop spreading Philip Morris' misinformation. You can do something about it--send an email to the Globe's CEO now!
