Interviewer asks:

Ultimately, if your aim is to stop every smoker out there from smoking,

why wouldn’t you just stop making cigarettes?

Nevena Crljenko, Vice President, Public Affairs, Philip Morris International, replies:

If Apple stopped producing iPhones today, would people stop using phones?

The answer is no.

The equivalent of that is if we stopped making cigarettes,

a smoker goes tomorrow to the shop, 

they’ll buy another brand, and we don't have to imagine scenarios: 

We can look at the countries that actually banned tobacco.

Bhutan did it several years ago, banned the use of cigarettes. 

South Africa, in Covid-times, banned temporarily the sale of tobacco products and alcohol.

What happened? The market was flooded with illicit products.

So, if there is demand, there will be a supply, 

and we believe it’s better to phase out cigarettes, obviously. 

And if more people are switching to smoke-free products,

obviously there’ll be less demand for cigarettes.