Philip Morris hunts hands at ULAB

Philip Morris International (PMI), the international tobacco maker, has been seeking its potential employees from different educational institutions in the capital, Dhaka through a campaign titled ‘Be the One’. Investigations have found that PMI has installed booths in different private university campus (ULAB, UIU, EWU and AIUB) with striking interior decoration to attract students to get registered with them for formal interview to be appointed at the company. Tobacco Industry Watch BD team members have found that PMI has launched such a booth at the University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh (ULAB) at Dhanmondi (few photographs attached).

The investigation has also found that the employed agents of PMI are advising the students who have crossed their 100 credit to get enrolled with PMI for a formal procedure (to be held latter) so that they can get a job at the tobacco company. Only a valid identity card of the university is required for the registration.

When asked about the interview or office location of the PMI in Bangladesh, the answer of the agents remained ambiguous and said that the interview venue will be informed over telephone.

This is a highly innovative technique by the tobacco industry to spread their business among youths across the country. In this way, they are running indirect advertisement as the interior decoration of the help desk and registration centre resembles of the Marlboro cigarette packet, and also creating a positive image on the society for PMI by the way that they are a stakeholder in employing unemployed youths.

It is highly shocking that inside an educational institution which is also a 100% smoke free public place, a multinational tobacco company is running its camouflaged promotion and advertisement before the eyes of the university administration.