Anti-tobacco campaigners are pressuring Walt Disney to use its $400m (£274m) stake in Vice Media to stop the youth-focused media company from making ads for the tobacco industry.
It was revealed by the Financial Times in March that Vice’s London-based marketing agency Edition Worldwide was creating ads for Marlboro maker Phillip Morris.
The ads do not carry Vice branding, will not run on its properties and will not be used in the UK or US where there are strict rules against advertising cigarettes.
In the UK, the courts have just upheld legislation forcing tobacco products to be sold in plain packaging.
However, in a letter seen by the Guardian addressed to Disney’s corporate citizenship manager and copied to chief executive Bob Iger, the US-based Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids says the company should stop Vice from using its expertise to help tobacco companies target young people.
It also asks Disney, famous for its cartoons but now also the owner of blockbuster franchises Marvel and Star Wars, to provide a detailed description of the tobacco-related work Vice has done so that public health organisations can “make an assessment of the damage caused by Vice’s activities”.
Although the letter was sent on 15 April, and asked for a response by 9 May, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids says it has received no communication from Disney.
Though neither Vice nor Disney would comment on the letter, a Vice spokesperson said it was currently “evaluating our global portfolio of businesses and agencies, and reviewing the work that they’re conducting”.
The letter, from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids president Matthew L Myers, says: “Given the tobacco industry’s long track record of targeting youth, it is highly irresponsible for Vice Media to use its expertise to help Phillip Morris find new ways to sell more of its deadly products, especially in low and middle income countries.
“We are certain that the Walt Disney Company does not want to be associated with or support companies that act in a socially irresponsible manner and contribute to the global tobacco epidemic.”
Disney owns 10% of Vice, having doubled its stake in December with an injection of $200m. Other Vice investors include Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox and A&E Television Networks, which is also hosting Vice’s cable channel Viceland in the US. Viceland is set to launch in the UK on Sky, which is part owned by Fox.
Edition was set up as a subsidiary of Vice UK called Talent Ventures last April and changed its name in January. Although a separate company, Matt Elek, Vice’s Europe Middle East and Africa chief executive and Richard Waterlow, Vice’s president of international, are listed as Edition’s directors.
Disney did not return repeated requests for comment.
