Philip Morris International is Marketing Products to Kids in Vietnam

Referring to youth as “replacement smokers”, the world’s largest tobacco companies are targeting kids with special advertising and promotions, tobacco products designed to appeal to youth, and product placement near primary and secondary schools across the globe.

That’s because kids are more susceptible to cigarette advertising and marketing than adults. The vast majority of all smokers begin their addictive habit before they reach age 18, and almost nobody tries smoking for the first time after 18. In other words, if large numbers of kids did not try smoking and go on to become regular users, the tobacco companies eventually would not have enough adult customers to make staying in business worthwhile.

In Vietnam, investigations into Phillip Morris International efforts to market to kids have uncovered advertising and product placement immediately surrounding primary and secondary schools.