[Intl-tobacco] Ukraine: PM billboard depicts pregnant woman and cigarette pack

[Robert Weissman]

Anti-smoking group hits L&M billboard

by Evgenia Mussuri, Kyiv Post Staff Writer
Source: Kyiv Post, 2002-02-21

Photo courtesy Smoke-Free Ukraine / Philip Morris removed this
billboard near the Poznyaki metro after hearing complaints about its
association of pregnancy and smoking.  [To see the photo, go to: http://www.kpnews.com/main/10570/]

A cigarette advertisement depicting a pregnant woman was pulled from
Kyiv billboards this month after a couple of Dutch businessmen
complained to the tobacco-maker’s office in their home country.

The billboards started appearing in Kyiv in January.

In the ad, a man is shown with his arm around a pregnant woman. An
L&M cigarette pack is pictured as well. The billboard is one in a
series of L&M ads that combine photographs of people with the name
of a major city and the slogan: “Connected to You.”

The ad drew jeers from the anti-smoking coalition Smoke-Free
Ukraine, which learned of the ad after some visiting businessmen
complained, said the coalition’s head Kostyantyn Krasovsky.

“They were stunned,” Krasovsky said.

The billboard, which Krasovsky believes encourages pregnant women to
light up, smacks of a double standard.

Last year, Philip Morris, which produces L&M, distributed thousands
of brochures warning pregnant women against smoking as part of an
anti-smoking effort, a move Krasovsky described as “hypocritical.”

“The appearance of this kind of advertising is a stab at the
nation’s health,” Krasovsky said.

Krasovsky said the Dutch businessmen first alerted him and then
contacted Phillip Morris’ office in The Netherlands when they
returned home. He said that Phillip Morris employees there said the
ad was a mistake and that it would be removed.

The offending advertisements were removed from Kyiv billboards by
mid-February and replaced with other L&M ads. It was not clear
whether Philip Morris pulled the ads because of the complaints.

How did the ads come about in the first place? Local Philip Morris
representatives won’t say. The company failed to return phone
calls.