Marlboro Man boss calls for smoking ban amid switch to vaping

The boss of the tobacco giant behind the iconic Marlboro Man said a date should be set to ban cigarettes.

Jacek Olczak, chief executive of Philip Morris International (PMI), has made it his mission to make old-style gaspers a thing of the past – and he says cigarettes should be replaced by alternatives such as vapes.

Since 2016, the company, which is best known for brands such as Marlboro and Benson & Hedges, has been trying to transform itself from the world’s biggest tobacco firm into a scientific hub that can help smokers quit for good.

It has invested more than £8.5billion in this ‘smoke-free future’ – from research papers to promotion of new products.

Olczak believes that a move on cigarettes similar to the combustion engine would have to be on a timescale that gives consumers and the industry time to respond and change.

‘Looking at what the UK is doing in the car industry, saying that as of a certain year you are not allowed to produce petrol cars, we could have this with tobacco too,’ he told the Mail.

Olczak was himself a smoker for two decades until he tried the brand’s IQOS heated tobacco device, which costs £39 for a starter kit.

Products such as heated tobacco and e-vapes now account for nearly 35pc of total annual revenues at PMI.

And the Polish businessman, who wants the company to become a so-called ‘ESG’ stock that qualifies to be included in funds that invest on environmental, social and governance principles, said government action would help to speed up the switch. 

New petrol and diesel cars and vans will be banned in the UK from 2030 – forcing manufacturers to produce green alternatives and putting pressure on drivers to go green.

Olczak, 58, also drew an analogy with the switch to energy-saving lightbulbs. ‘In different countries they had a number of investment schemes to promote research and development to see whether you can produce light with much less energy,’ he said.

The main thrust of Olczak’s argument is that governments could reduce smoking and the costs to health services if they supported tobacco companies like PMI to research alternatives which are less damaging to health – while setting a deadline for banning traditional cigarettes.

Quit habit: Philip Morris boss Jacek Olczak was himself a smoker for two decades

There could be a tenfold reduction in deaths linked to smoking if smokers fully switched to smoke-free products, according to the World Health Organisation.

In the past, PMI – whose brand was advertised by the Marlboro Man from the 1950s to the late 1990s – has fought lawsuits that alleged it hid the dangers associated with smoking. 

But Olczak, who became chief executive in 2021 after decades at PMI, said the business has fundamentally changed – so much so that cigarettes now, in his view, ‘belong in museums’.

Speaking at a recent event in London, Olczak  said: ‘When governments – and organisations that lobby them – prevent men and women who continue to smoke from accessing less harmful alternatives, and when they perpetuate misinformation about these products, it has a direct correlation to the persistence of smoking.

‘It’s time for anti-tobacco organisations to stop fighting against us and start fighting for adults who smoke.’

He praised Sweden and Japan for their approach to smoking alternatives in contrast with Brazil and Singapore, which have banned certain less harmful options.

PMI’s sales of cigarettes are still strong in the Middle East, Africa, south-east Asia and the Americas.