Your Choice Campaign PMI is Prohibited Advertising

The Dutch Advertising Code Committee ruled that the campaign with which PMI called on consumers to respond to an EU internet consultation on tobacco legislation is in violation of the advertising ban under the Dutch Tobacco regulation.

By the web editors

The ‘Your Voice, Your Choice’ campaign with which Philip Morris International (PMI) called on consumers to participate in the European Union’s internet consultation on the revision of the tobacco directives is in violation of the Dutch Tobacco and Smoking Products Act. This is the verdict of the Advertising Code Committee (RCC) after doctors filed a complaint against the campaign in June with the help of De Roos Advocaten & Notariaat and supported by the Youth Smoking Prevention Foundation and the Smoke-Free Generation (Heart Foundation, KWF Cancer Society and Lung Fund). The campaign consisted of posters and flyers that referred the public to a website where visitors could put together a response to the internet consultation with the help of an AI tool.

Strong steering campaign

The RCC now judges that the campaign and the AI tool were strongly guiding. This is partly because the campaign opens with the sentence “Your freedom of choice is at risk” and the options given by the AI tool always refer to “less harmful alternatives” to cigarettes. “The tone of the flyer, poster and website presents the alternative tobacco products as valuable and worthy of preservation for the consumer – given their taste, appearance and nicotine content – and a restriction of their availability is presented as a threat to personal freedom of choice.”

Campaign contained praise

PMI had argued that the campaign should not be regarded as advertising, but as a neutral, factual communication. But the RCC notes that the alternative tobacco products are “consistently presented in a promotional sense as ‘better’ and ‘less harmful’ alternatives”. Concluding: “As a result, the expressions contain a commendatory element and, viewed as a whole, they can be regarded as advertising.”

Website still online

According to the RCC, the statements qualify as commercial communications and are therefore in violation of the Tobacco and Smoking Products Act. Therefore, in its decision, the committee recommends that the advertiser no longer advertises in such a way. The campaign website yourvoicedecides.com is still online, but now only contains a reference to the second part of the internet consultation – a questionnaire – which is online until 14 August.

‘Influencing with AI is punishable’

In a reaction to the ruling, Wanda de Kanter, chairman of Youth Smoking Prevention, says: “From the moment we saw a photo of the campaign, we knew this is advertising in violation of the Tobacco and Smoking Products Act. It is therefore a criminal offense to influence people with AI. To give them the idea that something terrible is going to happen to their freedom. Frightening with very big words.”

‘Important victory’

Danielle Cohen, pulmonary pathologist at the LUMC, states: “This is an important victory, not only for us, but for everyone who is concerned about how the tobacco industry is trying to manipulate public opinion and the policy process through smart technology.”

Lawyer Laura van Gijn, who represented the complainants: “This decision is a clear signal to the tobacco industry that digital influence campaigns do not fall outside the scope of the advertising ban, even when they are presented as citizen participation. This precedent is relevant for similar campaigns elsewhere in Europe. On top of that: violation of the tobacco advertising ban is a criminal offense.”

80,000 responses, 35 pct. AI-generated

The EU internet consultation that the PMI campaign focused on ultimately yielded more than 80,000 responses, whereas such public consultations usually receive a few thousand responses at most. AI had also been used in other European member states to compile responses. The KRO-NCRV program Pointer and the NOS stated after analysing 65,000 of the submitted responses that 35 percent of them were generated by AI. Of the 786 responses from the Netherlands, 71 percent turned out to be generated by AI.

Ruling has broader meaning

The doctors argue that “the case has broader significance for the way in which the tobacco and vape industry responds to European policy processes, as the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and the Tobacco Excise Directive are still under consideration.” They also report that they are now preparing for follow-up actions.

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