Argentinean Bands : End Partnership with Philip Morris!

Attention: Members of Los Pericos, Kapanga, La Mancha de Rolando:

It has come to our attention that you have agreed to collaborate with the Argentinean tobacco company Massalin Particulares, a subsidiary of Philip Morris International, to promote Philip Morris cigarettes to young people, via the company’s “Iron Friends” campaign (which features concerts by your bands in Buenos Aires, Tucumán, Córdoba and Mendoza provinces during June and July 2010).

The “Iron Friends” promotional campaign involves extensive advertising online and in stores; prizes attractive to young people, e.g. an autographed guitar, iPods, and meetings with your bands; and free cigarette pack distribution at concerts. While Massalin Particulares/Philip Morris International would no doubt claim that this promotion only targets “adult smokers,” the truth is that young people of all ages have been extensively exposed to the promotion. And that is no mistake.

In order to increase profits, the tobacco industry must invest millions in advertising, promotions and sponsorships to hook new customers to their lethal products that kill millions worldwide each year – 40,000 annually in Argentina alone. Who are these new customers? In Argentina, young people who start smoking at the average age of 12.

The 2007 Global Youth Tobacco Survey conducted in Argentina by the Ministry of Health, confirms that 52% of people surveyed (a group of 5000 children between 13 and 15 years old from all over the country) had tried smoking at least once in their lifetime, and 24,5% of them had become tobacco addicts.

Your bands are tremendously popular with young people in Argentina, which is why your partnership with a subsidiary of the world’s largest multinational tobacco company is so disturbing. Your bands are being used to reach the tobacco industry’s most coveted target market.

We urge you to join the many bands and artists worldwide who have chosen to use their popularity as a vehicle for preventing – not promoting – more deaths from the number one preventable cause of death. Specifically, we ask you to pull out of all upcoming tobacco industry-sponsored events, and to make a commitment to refrain from all tobacco industry sponsored events and promotions in the future.

Sincerely,