Dutch doctors file complaint against Philip Morris over misleading ad campaign

A group of doctors and health charities will file a complaint on Friday with the Dutch Advertising Code Committee against a campaign by Philip Morris International (PMI). The groups contend that the campaign misleads the public by using an AI-driven tool that they say is designed to steer opinions and exert undue influence over European tobacco and nicotine regulations. "This is a coordinated lobbying campaign by an industry that makes millions of people worldwide ill and causes millions of deaths every year," said Hans Snijder, director of the Heart Foundation.

The disputed campaign centres on posters placed in Dutch retail districts. By scanning a QR code on the advertisements, members of the public are taken to a website where they can choose from a range of arguments opposing tighter tobacco and nicotine regulations. The platform then uses artificial intelligence to generate a tailored response that users can send directly to the European Commission as part of the consultation process.

"This is not neutral citizen participation, but a carefully designed influence campaign that creates the impression that people are expressing their own opinions, while in reality they are being steered in a predetermined direction," argued Danielle Cohen, a lung pathologist at LUMC. "There are dozens of buttons opposing stricter regulations, and only one button that allows users to indicate support for stricter regulations."

The complainants' lawyers argue that the campaign may qualify as tobacco advertising, which is prohibited. They also contend that the website does not properly comply with the GDPR, "even though people are being asked to indicate whether they smoke or use other alternative tobacco products. Those are highly sensitive data," said lawyer Laura van Gijn.

For that reason, a report is also being filed with the Dutch Data Protection Authority. In addition, the Smoke-Free Generation alliance (Heart Foundation, Dutch Cancer Society, and Lung Fund) has lodged a complaint about the campaign with the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority.

Doctors and other concerned parties will stage a protest on Friday at Utrecht Central Station, one of the locations where PMI's posters are displayed. Through the complaint and the demonstration, they hope to contribute "to a broader public debate about the role of the tobacco industry in public consultations and policymaking."