Sign the Petition:
Tell governments around the world to ban the “Be Marlboro” ad campaign and stop Philip Morris International from marketing its deadly products to kids.
Why Stop Marlboro?
How does Philip Morris International stay in business despite global restrictions on advertising and marketing? It targets low and middle-income countries unable to fight back.
PMI’s latest campaign, search “Be Marlboro, search ” has spread to more than 60 countries. And worse, PMI is using youth-oriented messages and images that appeal to a new generation of smokers.
Take action now to #StopMarlboro. Read our report and sign the petition calling on governments around the world to ban the “Be Marlboro” marketing campaign and others like it.
250 Million
Number of children and young people alive today who will die from tobacco-related diseases$7 Billion
Amount Philip Morris International spent on marketing and related expenses in 2014>60
Number of countries where “Be Marlboro” marketing can be foundHow to Market to Teens
How do you market to teens? Watch this video to find out how Marlboro’s ads do it in over 60 countries.
Teens React to “Be Marlboro”
Hear what teens around the world are saying about “Be Marlboro.”
The Evidence: Ads Marlboro Claims Don’t Target Teens
U.S.-based Philip Morris International has boosted global sales for its best-selling Marlboro cigarettes with a marketing campaign filled with images of sex, partying and risky behavior. They claim their advertising does not target teens. You be the judge.
How to Market to Teens: Sell Sex
How to Market to Teens: Throw a Party
How to Market to Teens: Make it Risky
“Be Marlboro” Videos from Around the World
Countries with “Be Marlboro” Trademarks or Advertising
Advocates Fight Back
Scroll through the slideshow to see how activists around the world are taking action to stop Marlboro.
In the News
Earlier this year, John Oliver thrust Philip Morris International — the New York-based cigarette giant that markets Marlboro and other brands in hundreds of countries outside the U.S. — into the spotlight for its questionable legal efforts to delay and block tobacco regulation around the globe. And this morning, the company used copyright claims to have videos posted by critics of Marlboro removed from the Internet.
Consumerist
May 1, 2015
“The ‘Be Marlboro’ ads threaten the health of millions of youths,” Matthew Myers, the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in an interview with Al Jazeera. “Young, hip models, partying, thrill-seeking — it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at these ads and see that their primary impact will be on young people.”
Al Jazeera
March 11, 2014
Smoking is deadly, but Philip Morris International and its brand, Marlboro, still want to push tobacco products onto trendy and attractive teenagers around the world. The company does so by throwing “Be Marlboro” parties in over 60 countries to promote the brand using sex, fun, and risk taking.
Business Insider
May 15, 2015
Over the past three years, U.S.-based Phillip Morris International (PMI) has mounted a 50-country campaign to update Marlboro’s image. The iconic Marlboro Man, long dead from lung cancer, has returned in the guise of a romantic, rebellious, thrill-seeking hipster who is everybody’s idol and nobody’s fool. This can be you, the ads assure self-doubting teens, if you take this life-changing pledge: “NEVER SAY MAYBE. BE MARLBORO.”
MSNBC
May 14, 2014
© 2015 Stop Marlboro
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