Dossiers

How the tobacco industry exploits the LGBTIQ+ cause for its marketing and public relations strategies.

The tobacco industry presents itself as an ally of the LGBTIQ+ community by funding associations and promoting inclusion. However, for decades, it has targeted this community through specific advertising campaigns. 

In the spring of 2025, cigarette manufacturers removed pages describing their commitment to LGBTIQ+ people from their websites. They also stopped communicating on this topic on social media. Their support for the LGBT movement therefore appears to have been an opportunistic communication tactic, which could be discarded as soon as it no longer served their commercial interests.

The tobacco industry's self-interested generosity in Switzerland

Taking advantage of permissive legislation, the tobacco industry has forged many partnerships with cultural and social organisations in Switzerland. Theatres, museums, humanitarian and environmental associations receive donations that appear to be offered generously and without counterpart.

Facing the tobacco epidemic: the human rights responsibilities of tobacco companies and the Swiss government

Tobacco prevention is part of a wider effort to defend human rights, in particular the rights to health and a healthy environment, as well as the rights of children. Although the link between the tobacco industry and human rights violations is still not widely recognised, it is gaining in importance in the public debate. The human rights approach can strengthen the fight against the tobacco epidemic, spread and maintained by the tobacco industry, particularly in Switzerland.

The tobacco and nicotine industry is utilising social networks to circumvent advertising bans and tap new markets

This study explores the many new marketing methods, including the vast social network field, which offer the tobacco corporations countless opportunities to promote their products while aiming them at everyone – adolescents and non-smokers included. 

Science for profit : How the University of Zurich sacrificed academic freedom for the benefit of a tobacco company

In 2012, Australia plays a pioneering role in smoking prevention, becoming the first country to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes. Fearing that this example would spread like wildfire, the tobacco industry, led by Philip Morris, launches a worldwide campaign against the measure, using every means at its disposal.

When it seems that the smoker is the only one polluting

It’s undeniable: the best way to address pollution is to treat it at the source. So, how to reduce the 24 million tons of solid waste (to mention just one of many environmental impacts) produced each year by the tobacco industry? The answer is to reduce the prevalence of smoking. However, the tobacco industry systematically resists this approach.