To give his work deep lashings of authenticity, John Safran took up smoking and vaping. He found himself short of breath. He began having chest pains. To secure more intimate access to the company, Safran purchased shares. Acting as a concerned shareholder, he gave PMI’s International Investor Relations a call, expressing worries that a migration of smokers to IQOS would not see them remain users, and certainly not dedicated ones. Not so, came the brisk reply; they tended to be a “one-to-one” replacement between cigarettes and the company’s HeatSticks. A smoker’s daily complement, in other words, would be replaced by one using IQOS. Addiction would not so much be ended as substituted. More
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This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Binoy Kampmark.