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Saturday, November 19, 2005
RP’s regulation of ads levels playing field
GOVERNMENT regulations provide stability and predictability for businesses and establish a level playing field.
That’s what Chris Nelson, managing director of Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc., said when he discussed “Communicating to the Consumer in a Regulated Environment” in a forum at the 19th Philippine Advertising Congress yesterday.
In the Philippines, President Arroyo signed into law Republic Act 9211, also known as the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003, that allows tobacco companies to do promotional programs and events as long as they are limited only to adult smokers, among other provisions.
Willingness
“We have come to embrace regulation as a part of the business of selling a risky product. Tobacco regulation, clearly, is the responsibility of the government and we have demonstrated many times in the past our willingness to work with government,” he said.
While they may have limited and more focused marketing avenues, government regulations applied uniformly still allow them “to compete for our fair share of the adult consumer market,” he explained.
Philip Morris International (PMI), one of the four operating companies of Altria Group Inc., has a 15 percent share of the international market of adult smokers.
Nelson said there is an estimated one billion adult smokers who consume 15.3 billion cigarettes per day or 5.6 trillion cigarettes per year.
Guidelines
PMI’s affiliates, which include Philip Morris Philippines, operate more than 50 factories around the world and its products are sold in more than 160 markets.
“We adhere to the guidelines regarding advertising content, like no advertisement may be aimed at minors, no advertisement may contain cartoon characters, no advertisement may suggest that most people are smokers, among others,” he said.
Nelson added that “despite an increasingly difficult environment,” they strive to maximize all the avenues available to communicate their product to consumers. (ALC)
(November 19, 2005 issue)
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