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|  | FEBRUARY 2, 2006
By Matt Vella French Tradition Goes Up in SmokeGovernment agencies and nonprofits are trying to wean the French from their beloved tobacco -- and it's working. Quelle surprise!France has long had a special relationship with tobacco. After all, nicotine was named for a Frenchman, Jean Nicot, the first European to cultivate the plant when it was imported from the New World in the 16th century. Ever since, the French have been in love with the weed. From existentialists waxing philosophical over coffee and smokes in cafés, to the romantic image of movie stars such as Yves Montand -- a cigarette dangling from his lips as he seduces Marilyn Monroe in Let's Make Love -- tobacco and France seemed inseparable. But now, mon dieu, even the French are starting to get serious about giving up the habit. Since 2003, the government has upped its antismoking rhetoric, raised taxes on cigarettes by 40%, and poured hundreds of millions of euros into programs aimed at eradicating France's biggest preventable health threat. "The fight against tobacco is urgent, an absolute priority," said President Jacques Chirac in a March, 2003, speech launching his new anticancer initiative. Emboldened nonprofit groups have taken to the airwaves, distributed millions of antismoking leaflets, and even filed lawsuits against major publications: The suits alleged indirect tobacco advertising in news photos of race car drivers sporting Marlboro logos on their jumpsuits. Meanwhile, sales of smoking-cessation products -- such as patches, gum, and GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK ) Zyban antismoking drug -- skyrocketed 47% in 2005. A BROADER MOVEMENT. The campaign is starting to work. France's overall smoking rate fell to 31% of the adult population last year, down from a peak of more than 52% in the 1980s. While still high, it's not as bad as anyone visiting a smoky Parisian bistro might assume. By comparison, U.S. smokers number 21% of the adult population, while in Britain the rate is 26%. More important, even bigger reductions are occurring among young people. The number of French high school students using tobacco has halved since 2001. And government tax hikes helped slash sales of cigarettes to the nation's remaining smokers by nearly one-third last year alone. Tobacco companies are putting on a brave face. Michael Pfeil, vice-president for communications and contributions for Philip Morris International, a subsidiary of Altria Group (MO ) and the maker of France's top-selling brand, Marlboro, cites his company's cooperation with public-health authorities in France and other European countries. "We do what we can to establish a stable business environment for our company," he says. Officials at Altadis, the Franco-Spanish venture that makes France's fabled Gauloise and Gitanes brands, couldn't be reached for comment, but Altadis shares have been flat for the past year. The stock is down 11% since the start of 2006, to $41.50, on the Paris bourse. France's new antismoking religion is part of a broader movement across Europe to mirror the U.S.'s successful 40-year campaign against tobacco. Already, countries such as Italy, Sweden, and Belgium have moved to limit indoor smoking, while Ireland, Scotland, and Norway have gone even further, outlawing it even in bars and restaurants. Such national efforts have the strong backing of the European Union, which mandated dramatically larger and blunter antismoking warnings on cigarette packs and ads starting in 2001. Soon, the text warnings may be supplemented with graphic images, such as color pictures of smoke-scarred lungs and gums. NOVEL APPROACHES. So far, the French government's primary focus has been on public-health issues. Chirac has created a new National Cancer Institute, funded with $2.4 billion, that groups together previously disparate medical experts and administrators. Tobacco tops the institute's list of major national health threats. To help citizens quit the habit, the government has opened a series of addiction treatment centers, though appointments are hard to come by. The government's Office for the Prevention of Tobacco Addiction also runs a workplace outreach program that will send staff addiction specialists on 2,000 company visits this year. The program even subsidizes 500 "workplace quitting coaches." One of the most novel approaches -- clearly aimed at younger people who frequent the Internet -- is a Web site backed by France's National Institute for Prevention and Health Education. The colorful site, www.JeSuisManipule.com ("I'm being manipulated"), includes shocking comic strips and videos, antismoking testimonials, and interactive online forums. It also features downloadable music and streaming antismoking ads. Such public efforts come at the same time as nonprofit antismoking groups proliferate around France. The new nationwide French Alliance Against Tobacco, a coalition of 30 organizations, focuses on subjects ranging from secondhand smoke in bars to tobacco use among youth. Its Tabac-Info-Service hotline, which offers free coaching, is available all day, six days a week -- virtually 24/7 by French standards. Another group, Tobacco-Free Business, works with big companies such as Renault and Peugeot (PEUGY ). On top of that are dozens of intra-European agencies funded by the likes of the EU and the World Health Organization. MEDIA ATTENTION. The nonsmoking majority of French people are becoming less timid about demanding their rights. Polls indicate that 72% of the population would support a complete ban on smoking in public places. "We should be talking about smokers living in a nonsmoking society, not the other way around," says Céline Fournier, communications manager for an organization called Nonsmokers Rights. To promote that perspective, Fournier's group in 2005 distributed 250,000 copies of a guide to smoke-free bars and restaurants. Other organizations are making clever use of the media to spread the word. For the past year, a coalition of antismoking groups has sponsored TV shorts, titled I'm Quitting, And You?, pairing French pop star Ophelie Winter with a regular citizen smoker as they attempt to kick the habit together. Each thematic episode features the two in reality TV-style settings, addressing the difficulties of quitting, visiting medical experts, and enjoying newfound lung capacity (by jogging together). Advocacy groups also are taking a page from the legalistic American approach to battling social ills. Under existing French laws banning tobacco advertisements, Nonsmokers Rights sued three newspapers for publishing photographs of Formula One drivers with the Marlboro logo on their gear. The Parisian court of minor offenses ruled against Le Monde, Le Point, and Les Echos last month, fining them between $950 and $1,180, plus the plaintiffs' court fees. CHANGING IMAGE. The outstanding question is whether smoking will become an issue in the upcoming 2007 presidential election. Many people in France doubt the country is ready to adopt a total ban on public smoking -- of the sort now in effect in Spain and Ireland -- though some think it's only a matter of time. Politicians are afraid of the issue, despite vast public support for smoking restrictions. Why? France's 36,000 tobacco-shop owners have threatened to take to the streets if a ban is mooted. Such protests, even by minority groups, have an outsize impact in French media and politics. In fits and starts, France's longtime love affair with cigarettes is finally giving way. Perhaps no recent event underscored the shift more than last September's news that Altadis was moving production of Gauloises out of France. The favorite of Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge Gainsbourg offshored to Spain? It's a sign of the times. "The image of the Frenchman with baguette, red wine, and cigarette needs to be slightly altered," says Dr. Albert Hirsch, a professor of pulmonary medicine and vice-president of an advocacy group, The Fight Against Cancer. "Soon the cigarette will be gone from the picture."  Vella is an intern in BusinessWeek's Paris bureau Edited by Andy Reinhardt Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. 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