Exclusive: WHO concerned by Big Tobacco-funded

foundation’s 'aggressive PR effort' during COVID-19

pandemic
Added 45 hours ago by Arvind Hickman

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that a “front group” for the tobacco
industry and its PR agencies are taking advantage of the coronavirus to fund research
on tobacco users.

News

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A frame from 'Derek's Message', a Foundation for a Smoke-Free World video on YouTube
The non-profit organisation Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW),
which is funded by tobacco company Philip Morris International (PMI) with
an $80m annual investment, claims it operates independently and funds
research into the health risks of cigarettes and alternatives that can help
smokers quit or reduce their risk to combustible nicotine products.

Its activities are being monitored by health authorities and a tobacco industry
watchdog, STOP, which recently analysed the foundation’s tax return and
spending activities.

Dr Vinayak M Prasad, the programme manager that leads WHO’s Tobacco Free
Initiative, told PRWeek the global health body has been following the research
and PR activities of foundations linked to the tobacco industry during the
crisis.

“We are concerned that the tobacco industry and front groups such as the
FSFW are taking advantage of the current pandemic,” he said.

“We are seeing foundation[s] funding surveys of tobacco users or funding

universities for COVID-19 related research. There is an aggressive PR effort by
the foundation and its communication teams around their activities in a
number of countries.”

PRWeek approached the FSFW and its PR agency, Ruder Finn, to find out more
about their activities.

An FSFW spokesperson said its mission is to “accelerate progress towards

ending smoking”.

“Our health, science, and technology agenda explicitly addresses product

assessment and development for cessation and harm-reduction innovations,”
the spokesperson said.

“We are agnostic to what product category is used and focus rather on how to
ensure that the most effective means of ending smoking is safe and readily
available. We believe that more research is needed across all of the product
categories. Therefore, we are funding research projects that will enhance
knowledge in this area.”
Ruder Finn’s involvement

The FSFW said Ruder Finn has led global public relations activities to increase
the visibility of its research and raise awareness of the Foundation’s Global
State of Smoking poll. This includes programmes such as the Tobacco
Transformation Index.

Ruder Finn has also helped the FSFW produce content, including a video
message from foundation president Derek Yach (see above).

The foundation also confirmed that Ruder Finn had spearheaded the global
efforts to generate awareness of its COVID-19 State of Smoking Poll (see chart
below) in May.

Ogilvy had previously supported the FSFW's programme across digital and
social media platforms, until severing ties in mid-2019.

A Ruder Finn spokesperson told PRWeek it assists with “communications

strategy around their mission to end smoking in this generation, particularly
in the world’s lower- and middle-income geographies where this issue is
most dire”.

The agency wouldn’t reveal who works on the account, but PRWeek
understands one member of the account team is a senior vice-president who
has worked with other pharma and healthcare clients. Ruder Finn said its UK
and EMEA offices are not involved with the client.

The FSFW's 2019 US tax filing reveals it spent $5.1m on public relations
agencies. This includes $2.1m to Ruder Finn, $1.2m to Ogilvy’s PR business
and $1.1m to APCO Worldwide subsidiary MarketKonnect – a digital services
platform.

The same filings reveal the foundation was solely funded by PMI with an
$80m investment in 2019, and a $1bn multi-year commitment.

About half of its budget ($41.1m) is spent on ‘grants and contributions’, with
the lion's share ($28.4m) going towards ‘health, science and technology’
projects, and the rest split between grants to help farmers in developing
countries find alternatives to tobacco crops ($7m), and ‘industry
transformation’ projects ($5.4m).

Science vs PR

A global tobacco industry watchdog – Stopping Tobacco Organizations &

Products (STOP) – analysed FSFW’s 2019 spending.
It claims the foundation is more interested in PR activity to position PMI's
'smoke-free world' positioning and helping smokers move to next-
generation nicotine products, rather than scientific research.

This includes funding VIDA News to “increase public awareness of the drivers
of smoking harm and the availability of alternatives”; the International
Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO) to “promote tobacco
harm-reduction on the global stage”; and the Conrad Foundation to hold
children’s science competitions.

It said that two of the biggest recipients of foundation grants are the Center of
Excellence for the Acceleration of Harm Reduction at the University of
Catania, Italy, and the Rose Research Center – organisations that have a long
history of working with PMI, including research on its new heated tobacco
and vape products, IQOS.

“They’ve got a lot of spin they need putting out there and they’ve got a large
organisation (Ruder Finn) to help them do that,” said Philip Chamberlain, a
managing editor for Tobacco Tactics, which is run by the Tobacco Control
Research Group at the University of Bath.

“The fact that they’ve increased the main PR contract fourfold suggests how
serious they are taking this job of selling the story rather than funding any
particular science or research.”

Chamberlain said FSFW activities are about trying to get Philip Morris “back
at the table” in key markets as smokers transition away from combustible
tobacco products to alternatives like heated tobacco, vapes and other forms of
e-cigarettes.

“It’s a very tried-and-tested industry playbook to set up organisations (like

the foundation) to be able to speak on behalf of the industry and Ruder Finn
has been part of that process in the past (when it worked with tobacco
clients),” Chamberlain added. “Fundamentally, it’s solely a creature of Philip
Morris, despite what it may say about its terms of operation. It’s got one
funder and that piper really plays the tune.”
An FSFW spokesperson told PRWeek that although it is solely funded by PMI,
it “may seek funding from other sources as well, but we have not started this
process yet”.

They also said the foundation operates independently from the tobacco giant
and that it awards grants to “a number of world-renowned researchers who
are spearheading innovative smoking-cessation and harm-reduction
projects”.