Philip Morris pursues ‘smoke free’ market

TOKYO – Philip Morris, maker of Marlboro and other major cigarette brands, is maneuvering to keep itself in business in a post-smoking world with an advertising blitz in puff-happy Japan and other tobacco-loving markets.

One of the biggest purveyors of tobacco products, it says making the world “smoke free” is its goal. The company is renewing its effort to win over new generations of tobacco users to its iQOS devices, which heat tobacco without burning it.

It’s found a warm welcome in Japan, home to 5 million of the nearly 6 million users of the product.

“Japan is a country where people like innovation, like to experiment and try new products,” Chief Executive Andre Calantzopoulos told The Associated Press during a trip to Tokyo this week to promote new iQOS products.

By heating tobacco without burning it, iQOS gives users vapor and flavor without the hazards of smoke and tar from cigarettes, cigars and pipes, the company says. It’s different from e-cigarettes, another popular “reduced risk” product, which don’t contain tobacco but instead vaporize a liquid usually containing nicotine.

The iQOS has yet to win U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, but it’s sold in much of Europe, in Turkey, South Korea, New Zealand and Colombia.

The company’s rebranding effort seems to be paying off in Japan, where the company has opened nine iQOS stores offering free WiFi and drinks in trendy districts nationwide.

Mami Kugishima, a 32-year-old hair stylist and iQOS user standing in a designated smoking area near a train station, said she likes the way the smell doesn’t get in her hair.

“It calms me down,” she said, sucking on her crystal-decorated iQOS, while acknowledging it would be best to quit. “I like it when I go out for drinks.”

The World Health Organization points to tobacco as a leading cause of death, killing up to half its users, or more than 7 million people every year. Of those, about 890,000 deaths are nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke.