Philip Morris' heat-not-burn (HNB) device IQOS was launched nationwide in Japan in 2016, igniting Japan's HNB market.
Currently, the three main HNB products sold in Japan are British American Tobacco's glo and Japan Tobacco's ploom. All three companies have launched intensive banner advertising on the Internet, and IQOS and ploom's advertisements have even appeared on free streaming media "TVers".
But in Japan, traditional tobacco is treated differently. Due to the self-regulatory standards of industry associations, advertisements for tobacco products are completely prohibited on television, and similar promotional content cannot be published online. Even Japan Tobacco, a local snake, cannot show pictures of smoking cigarettes. It can only expose it to the public through vague "impression advertising", "smoking etiquette", "smoking control measures" and other roundabout content. (Elf bar has adopted a similar strategy in the UK with its roundabout content on "single-use product recycling".)
Many people in the traditional cigarette industry denounced the proliferation of heated tobacco advertisements on the Internet as "double standards." However, the manufacturer claims that these are not "tobacco" advertisements, but refer to themselves as "devices": whether in online stores or in garbage disposals, HNB and atomizing e-cigarette equipment are classified as "small household appliances."
Why are new tobacco (devices) exposed to such a large public presence in Japan? Is it possible for other countries to follow suit or even imitate this? Will Japan’s promotion of new tobacco products change direction in the future?
Different control standards of the media
As of March 2021, the number of monthly TVers is approximately 17 million, and the number of views is approximately 180 million times. On such a large platform, ploom launched advertising for the first time in February 2020. IQOS followed in March 2021.
In heated tobacco, IQOS’s share has always accounted for an overwhelming 70%. ploom's share is estimated to be about 10%. By advertising on emerging and momentum services, ploom is trying to turn the situation around, and IQOS is not to be outdone. Such a publicity platform has become a high ground that giants are trying to seize.
This may seem counter-intuitive: why do new types of tobacco appear so freely in Japanese mass media?
In fact, in the absence of clear legal provisions stipulating new tobacco devices, the media has various judgments on the scale.
The head of public relations at the online advertising giant Yahoo once said that both the tobacco part and the device part of HNB products can be advertised, and the response of existing advertisements to users and society will be checked at any time. "
JT’s Plume commercial is broadcast on ABEMA, which is funded and content provided by TVer and TV Asahi. Both companies said in interviews that they were “unable to review individual ads.”
Google is on the opposite side. Google believes that because HNB, like cigarettes and atomized e-cigarettes, falls into the category of "dangerous products or services" under the company's advertising business policy, merchants are not allowed to place ads including HNB devices.
Observers and industry insiders report that the policies of these giants are not static, but are sometimes tightened and sometimes relaxed. Because the company's decision-making process is not as long as the policy change process, it is entirely based on business and public relations benefits. As commercial companies, Google and Yahoo will flexibly change the corresponding access rules.
But overall, online advertising channels are extremely friendly to HNB devices. Such lenient treatment has even spilled over to other types of new tobacco products besides HNB, such as British American Tobacco and RELX's zero-need disposable products that have just landed in Japan. The advertising images are almost the same as those of ordinary technology products. E-cigarettes have been able to enter the horizons of potential consumers in this country as a beautiful, fashionable and avant-garde lifestyle - completely different from the disturbing content of traditional tobacco warnings.
The controversy and legal basis of “double standards”
However, this "dividend" enjoyed by new tobacco will obviously not satisfy its strictly regulated "cousin" traditional tobacco, which has even publicly claimed that the status quo is a "double standard." A senior executive of a commercial television station once said that it is unreasonable to call for the removal of tobacco advertisements from television while ignoring the proliferation of HNB advertisements on online advertisements.
Is it reasonable in the Japanese context that advertisements for "traditional tobacco" and "new tobacco devices" are treated so differently?
A spokesman for the Japan Interactive Advertising Association (JIAA), a general corporate body that aims to regulate online advertising, said in an interview that as long as it does not touch the legal bottom line and complies with the self-regulatory standards of the industry association, "we don't think there is a problem."
But he also admitted that they did discuss in the association's internal meetings whether there is a substantial difference between "traditional tobacco" and "new tobacco devices" for consumers who browse advertisements.
Dr. Takahiro Tabuchi, assistant director of the Department of Epidemiology and Statistics of the Osaka International Cancer Center Cancer Control Center, pointed out a similar argument: "If you buy an HNB device, you will inevitably smoke, and it is meaningless to distinguish between the two."
Therefore, the act of classifying HNB devices as "small home appliances" and separating them from "cigarettes" is a bit "exploiting" and a bit "unreasonable". More than one dealer in Japan told 2FIRSTS that such a "loophole" relies on years of lobbying by the team behind Japan Tobacco, the country's nicotine overlord.
However, academic circles have also provided opinions on the whole matter from other angles. Professor Motohiro Hashimoto of the School of Law at Chuo University in Japan believes that the difficulty in limiting the proliferation of such advertisements on the Japanese Internet lies in "freedom of speech." he once said. Smoking is legal for adults. Therefore, “judgment about tobacco products should first be left to individuals.”
Will it tighten in the future?
Currently, one of the most solid arguments for Japan’s support for the “freedom of online exposure” of new tobacco devices is that online advertisers have ways to confirm the age of the audience and carry out precise advertising, so that it will not pose any ethical or legal problems.
However, Dr. Takadai Tabuchi pointed out that it is not enough to prevent minors from being exposed to advertisements. The purpose of advertising regulations is to prevent smoking from causing harm to health. Considering the changes in the environment of new products such as heated tobacco, he believes it is time to re-examine regulatory content, including advertising.
Such loose regulations have actually helped HNB products gain an advantageous position in the Japanese market in the past decade. But most importantly, are new tobacco products, including HNB, really harm-reduced products? What impact does it have on health? Can it really help adult smokers quit smoking? Regarding these points, more research results need to be confirmed. Japanese regulators are probably waiting for more evidence to formulate next-step policies, including the "zero-Ni entry" regulations.
