How big tobacco firms are using e-cigarettes to try to improve their image

The global tobacco industry is still big business, worth around £730 billion a year. This may seem strange for a product known to have caused more than 200 million deaths in the last 30 years.

But people continue to smoke. And newer products like e-cigarettes have allowed the industry to diversify its range – and expand its appeal.

Big tobacco firms see this expansion as a vital tool for improving public perceptions and normalising the continued use of tobacco products. After all, PR can be a challenge when there is a proven link between your product and death.

As part of this, tobacco companies have become very vocal about their commitments to “transforming” and “reducing the health impact” of their businesses. And while these claims are often vague and undefined, two of the largest tobacco companies have both openly pledged change.

For Philip Morris International (PMI), the apparent focus is on a “smoke-free future”. At British American Tobacco (BAT), the stated ambition is a “better tomorrow”. And at first glance, such a change in direction from an industry that has been so damaging to human and planetary health seems encouraging.

But tobacco companies have a long history of using carefully crafted narratives to maintain profitability and limit reputational damage. And research I carried out with colleagues suggests that contrived mission statements about improving health and consumer choice distract the public from the serious health issues caused by using tobacco and nicotine.

This can be seen with the rise of e-cigarette use, particularly by young people. Vaping among 11- to 18-year-olds has more than doubled in England, from 4% to 8.6%, since 2021.

Some of the consumer appeal of e-cigarettes is understandable. Like other personal electronic devices, e-cigarettes can be tailored to suit individual tastes, with variable flavours, nicotine strengths and designs. Tobacco companies clearly see potential in these products. On websites and YouTube videos, they repeatedly champion “individual choice” and “freedom”.

PMI says it provides the “most promising path to providing a better consumer choice for those who would otherwise continue to smoke”. BAT mentions the “freedom to innovate” as central to its quest to provide consumers with what they want.

Both companies stress individual consumer choice as a central concern. But evidence indicates that this kind of language is confusing and misleading.

Our research shows how these newer products are repeatedly linked by tobacco companies to messages around better health and the potential to change the lives of adult smokers. But by making consumer choice and individual freedoms central to its messaging, big tobacco firms place the onus on the consumer to make the right choice. It disregards its own continuing role in developing and promoting addictive products.

Mixed messages

Adding to the confusion is the vast range of new products available. Disposable e-cigarettes, “snus” (an oral tobacco product) and water pipes are among many of the options on offer.

In fact, the UK’s official database of medicines and healthcare products lists 16,950 products under the disposable e-cigarette category alone. And research suggests this level of abundance has even affected how people understand what “smoking” actually means. The sheer volume of products creates a huge barrier to comprehending the risks they may bring.

For their part, tobacco companies don’t seem particularly fond of the term “e-cigarette”. BAT prefers to describe them as “vapour” or “non-combustible” products, while PMI uses the terms “e-vapor” or “smoke-free”.

Elsewhere, in spite of international treaties to prevent the political interference of big tobacco firms, the industry continues to lobby governments against more stringent tobacco controls. Meanwhile, there is more investment in conventional tobacco products like cigarettes.

Clever corporate storytelling has become part of a wider business strategy which exacerbates public misunderstandings about risks, and creates barriers to the effective implementation of public health policies. All of this continues to contribute to the global suffering caused by tobacco.

A spokesperson for PMI described the underlying research as “unreliable” and an attempt to “discredit legitimate corporate transformation rather than supporting efforts to phase out the consumption of cigarettes”.

He added: “Our transformation speaks for itself. In 2023, the global net revenues of our flagship smoke-free alternative IQOS [the company’s heated tobacco products] surpassed our best-selling cigarette brand Marlboro, less than a decade since it was launched.”

The spokesperson said PMI intends its smoke-free business to account for “more than two-thirds of net revenues by 2030”.

BAT did not respond to a request to comment on this article.

Iona Fitzpatrick receives funding via the Tobacco Control Research Group from Bloomberg Philanthropies.