30 January 2025, Its ‘back to the future’ in the Philippines. Marlboro adverts which began in the USA back in the 1950s are now appearing fresh in the Philippines. Nine of the American men who appeared in US Marlboro adverts died of lung cancer: Ray Madson (47), Bob Julian (51), Wayne McLaren (51), John Harlan (55), Harold Lee (62), Junior Ferris, (62, also had a heart attack), Richard Hammer (69), David McLean 73 (also had emphysema) and Jerome Edward (Tobin) Jackson. The most well-known Marlboro cowboy, Wayne McLaren, spent his last years in the 1990s campaigning against smoking. There are no more Marlboro cowboy adverts in the US.
Figure 1: Wayne Maclaren: First Marlboro Man, then lung cancer patient
In the Philippines, while there are no Filipino models in the cigarette adverts, however an outdated law that allows tobacco advertisement at points-of-sale (RA 9211), has seen Marlboro advertising taken to a new level not seen anywhere else in the world.
In Cavite city for example, you can be excused for mistakenly thinking Marlboro cigarettes drive the local economy. Shop after shop is plastered with the familiar red and white Marlboro cigarette adverts and whole stores painted with the brand color (Figure2). There is no escape from the Marlboro advertisements.
Figure 2: Marlboro adverts at points of sale in Cavite, 17 January 2025
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| Whole shop painted red and white advertises, “Marlboro #1 in the world”. It is as if the shop only sells Marlboro cigarettes and nothing else. | Even furniture in the shop, including the bench and table, are painted red. |
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| PMFTC promotion for cigarettes: “No Price Increase – P9 per stick”. Philippines has not banned promotions at points of sale. | PMFTC is not required to declare to regulators what incentives are provided to the shop owner for carrying the advertisement. |
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| Small sari-sari shop shopkeepers would welcome a free coat of paint for their shops. | Yellow and blue colors for Camel cigarette by JTI, second largest tobacco company in the Philippines, “Say hello to Camel” |
Photo courtesy: SEATCA
Japan Tobacco International (JTI), second largest tobacco company in the Philippines, has also joined the band wagon with its cigarette advertisements. JTI’s yellow and blue adverts for Camel cigarettes invite passers-by with, “Say hello to Camel” (Figure 2).
While the tobacco industry claims to not advertise to children, no Filipino child can unsee these in-your-face cigarette adverts. There are also promotional adverts for single sticks of Marlboro, “No Price Increase – P9 per stick”.
The Philippines now has the ill repute of being the only country in the ASEAN region that still allows sales of single sticks. Single sticks are known to be appealing, affordable and accessible to children and the poor to initiate smoking or to keep smoking. P9 is comparable to the price of a candy, or cheap ice cream, or two pieces of chewing gum.
Indonesia, largely seen as a tobacco industry-friendly country, recently banned the sale of single sticks of cigarettes and upped the purchase age from 18 years to 21 years.
The Philippines tobacco control law, (RA 9211) enacted in 2003 is currently non-compliant with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), to which Philippines became a Party in 2005. Obligations under the treaty include implementing a comprehensive ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, promotions and sponsorships (TAPS) and banning sales of cigarettes loose or in small packs. The deadline to comply with implementing a comprehensive TAPS ban is five years after ratification, i.e. 2010 for the Philippines.
Rather than catching up to meet its international obligations to reduce tobacco use, the Philippines appears to be doing the opposite by promoting cigarettes.
In 2023, about 60 billion sticks of cigarettes were sold in the Philippines and Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp (PMFTC) controls about 70% of the cigarette market share (Table 1). Despite PMI CEO’s rhetoric that “cigarettes belong in museums” the company is not prepared to stop cigarette sales in the Philippines or anywhere else, instead is stepping-up promotions of cigarettes.
The Filipino cigarettes category is expected to grow from PHP473.3 billion ($4.92 billion) in 2022 to PHP506 billion ($8.74 billion) by 2027. According to GlobalData, stick sales are expected to decline to 56 billion pieces by 2027 (Table 1). This may help explain the aggressive advertising to avert the decline.
Table 1: Cigarette stick sales in the Philippines on declining trend
| 2017 | 2019 | 2021 | 2023 | 2025 | 2027 | |
| Billion sticks | 75.1 | 70.7 | 63.8 | 60.6 | 58.5 | 56.2 |
With the aggressive advertising and promotions, it is no surprise that Marlboro cigarettes are the top selling cigarette brand (57% of cigarette market share) in the Philippines.
The Philippines has about 15 million smokers and 694,821 retail outlets for tobacco. i.e. 460 retailers per 10,000 smokers. Compare this with 8 physicians per 10,000 population. Needless to say, the Philippines has a way to go to protect its youth from tobacco.
Philippines legislators must decide how better protect children from tobacco and comply with meeting the obligations of WHO FCTC.
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