Convenience store network Żabka, Poland’s largest retail chain, has withdrawn a promotion offering customers a hot dog, panini or coffee for only 1 zloty (22 euro cents) if they purchased a packet of cigarettes or tobacco sticks.
The firm made the decision following public criticism of the campaign, and after the health ministry announced that it would refer the case to prosecutors and the consumer authority for violating a ban on advertising tobacco products. However, despite withdrawing the offer, the firm insists it did not break the law.
The promotion came to wider attention after social activist Jan Śpiewak posted screenshots of the advertisements. “Żabka is a very serious threat to public health,” he wrote.
Reklama wyrobów tytoniowych jest niedopuszczalna i nieważne do jak wąskiego grona osób jest kierowana oraz czy są to tylko palacze. Jesteśmy zobligowani skierować sprawę do prokuratury i @UOKiKgovPL . Liczymy, że dla @Zabka_PL zdrowie klientów jest najważniejsze i wycofa reklamę https://t.co/fH3vq45O0y
— Ministerstwo Zdrowia (@MZ_GOV_PL) May 9, 2023
In a subsequent statement to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), Żabka said that it had “decided to withdraw the communication of this particular offer” because “critical voices regarding the way our offer is presented are very important to us”.
“Even in the absence of a legal basis, as is the case today, the communication may be inappropriate for other reasons,” it added.
In a further statement to financial news service Money.pl, Żabka made clear that it was withdrawing not only communication of the offer, but also the offer itself. Again, however, it insisted that “the presented offer was in accordance with applicable law and was not advertising”.
The firm noted that the promotion “was not addressed to a wide audience” and had only been available to adult users of Żabka’s mobile app in a section called “the smoker’s zone” and could only be viewed by users who had “previously agreed to the possibility of [receiving] such information”.
Polish grocery chain Żabka now has Europe's largest network of autonomous stores.
It aims this year to overtake Amazon as the world's biggest operator of such cashierless outlets https://t.co/zsComUNx5k
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 23, 2023
However, in a tweet the health minister wrote that “tobacco advertising is unacceptable and it doesn’t matter how small a group of people it is targeted at or whether they are only smokers”. It was therefore “obliged to refer the case to the prosecutor’s office and UOKiK”, the consumer protection authority.
Under Polish law, it is forbidden to advertise and promote tobacco and a wide range of related products on television and radio, in the press, on posters and “through IT services”.
In the early 1990s, Poland had the world’s highest level of cigarette consumption, according to World Health Organisation figures. In 1997, around 37% of adults in Poland smoked, but that figure has now fallen to 29%, according to the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN).
The number of smokers continues to fall in Poland, which three decades ago had the highest cigarette consumption in the world.
Younger Poles are now much less likely to smoke than their counterparts elsewhere in the EU https://t.co/DHktCssu6q
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 15, 2021
Main image credit: Wistula/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 4.0)
Anna Hackett is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a recent graduate of European Studies from Trinity College Dublin and has had previous journalistic experience with the Irish Independent News & Media group.
