Philip Morris suspends social media campaign of its ‘heated tobacco’ device

Tobacco giant Philip Morris is suspending a global social media campaign to market its “heated tobacco” product known as IQOS following an investigation by Reuters. Philip Morris’ internal marketing standards prevent the company from using social media influencers below the age of 25, according to Reuters, but the investigation found that the IQOS device — which is touted as having 95% fewer toxic chemicals than cigarettes — was being marketed on Instagram by women as young as 21. The FDA last month began allowing the company to sell the IQOS device in the U.S. after Philip Morris “repeatedly assured the regulator that it would warn young people away from the product,” according to Reuters. The company also told Reuters that it had launched an internal investigation into the social media campaign.