Big Tobacco’s Global Reach on Social Media

It’s been years since the tobacco industry promised to stop luring young people to smoke cigarettes.

Philip Morris International says it is “designing a smoke-free future.”British American Tobacco, likewise, claims to be “transforming tobacco”into a safer product.

But while the Food and Drug Administration weighs plans to cut nicotine in cigarettes, making them less addictive, Big Tobacco has been making the most of the time it still has using social networks to promote its brands around the world.

Most countries, like the United States, imposed rules back in the 1970s against marketing tobacco to youths; many have banned cigarette commercials on television and radio.