British American Tobacco’s use of influencers and emerging forms of media raises ethical issues for the marketing and public relations professions.

A Bureau of Investigative Journalism report has criticised British American Tobacco (BAT) for targeting its products at young people, often in developing markets using emerging forms of media.

Journalist Matthew Chapman reports on BAT’s use of paid influencers on Instagram and TikTok, and sponsorship of music and sporting events including an e-sports tournament streamed on YouTube. These campaigns breach the platforms’ own terms and conditions and ethical standards for marketing and public relations.

At a time when marketing and PR associations are keen to promote the ethical credentials of practitioners, organisations should face robust scrutiny.

BAT manufactures and sells cigarettes around the world. The correlation between illness and tobacco is well known. According to the NHS around 78,000 people in the UK die from smoking each year.

BAT’s modern-day purpose is to reduce the health impact of the business by shifting cigarettes to less toxic nicotine consumer packaged goods (CPG).

Chief Executive Jack Bowles and Finance and Transformation Director Tadeu Marroco outlined the company’s vision at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York online conference last week.  The presentation called Enterprise of the Future is a story of business transformation from cigarettes and tobacco heating products to oral and vaping products.

The transformation of BAT is a significant challenge. Its turnover in 2019 was £26 billion. Cigarettes and tobacco heating products accounted for 439 billion units, vapour 226 million units, and modern oral 1.2 billion pouches.

It is aiming to reinvigorate its business operations by growing its oral and vaping categories to £5bn by 2025, while growing the business overall by 3-5% per year.

“The investor presentations are telling. If you read between the lines you can clearly see BAT is after new, younger users. Its business model is based on addiction and would eventually fail without bringing in new users. Unfortunately, they are one step ahead of the regulators and excel at operating within legal grey areas,” said Chapman.

As Chapman suggests I am not sure how it could achieve such aggressive business objectives without targeting young people - and investing in new markets and new forms of media on the fringes of regulatory scrutiny.

If you want to contribute to this discussion in the UK please respond to the current Government consultation on tobacco product legislation. The industry is lobbying for a loosening of restrictions post-Brexit and it is important that voices are heard, says Chapman.

You can also donate to the work of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.