Tobacco (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver)

Oliver and his team promoted the cartoon character by sending shirts with Jeff's image to Togo and displaying billboards in Uruguay, and by encouraging use of the hashtag #JeffWeCan, which trended on Twitter following the broadcast.

The "Tobacco" segment received widespread media coverage, with several outlets praising Oliver's ability to launch successful marketing campaigns and change perceptions about smoking through the creation of the mascot.

[8][9] Oliver then states that the baby's favorite brand of cigarettes is owned by PMI, one of the tobacco companies that has "flocked" Indonesia and contributed to its smoking epidemic.

[3] Afterward, Oliver tells his viewers about tobacco companies' worldwide actions to "attack laws intended to protect public health".

[2] One of these laws was in Australia, where the federal government replaced all branding on tobacco boxes with "plain packaging" photographs that showed the effects of smoking, including "the toe tag on the corpse, the cancerous mouth, the nightmarish eyeball, [and] the diseased lung".

)[14] Oliver says that Ukraine, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic had also filed complaints with the World Trade Organization over Australia's tobacco-box law.

[3][21] Additionally, PMI had also sued Togo,[20][19] which had mandated that each tobacco box sold in the country contain health warnings written in French, a language many of the nations' residents did not read.

[26] Similarly, Rolling Stone's Daniel Kreps said Jeff helps to "bridge the gap between the Marlboro Man ... and a 'lung that looks like you're breathing through baked ziti'".

[22] Alicia Lu of Bustle wrote: Sure, he may be an anthropomorphic lung that's decaying from being exposed to years of cigarette smoke, which might not be Big Tobacco's first choice for branding, but he's a cowboy.

Sarene Leeds of The Wall Street Journal called Jeff's appearance "a full-on Disneyland-ish nightmare" and wrote: "there is nothing more disturbing – or awesome – that you will see today than the sight of John Oliver dancing around a guy dressed up as a smoking, infected lung surrounded by more than a dozen children".

A performer in a Jeff costume appeared at Kick Butts Day, a protest organized by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and youth advocates, which was held outside Philip Morris' annual shareholders' meeting in New York City on May 6, 2015.

Shana Narula, the campaign's coordinator, said: The whole concept is to use Jeff and the hashtag #JeffWeCan and #StopMarlboro to show that these marketing tactics are not allowed and tobacco is still the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the world.

[34] The segment received widespread media coverage, with several outlets praising Oliver's ability to launch successful marketing campaigns and "alter perceptions about smoking" through the creation of the mascot Jeff.

"[38] Alex Frail of The Massachusetts Daily Collegian said, "One of his funnier bits, Jeff the Diseased Lung, took aim at the tobacco industry; landed on cigarette packs throughout Australia and on billboards throughout Uruguay; and delivered t-shirts to Togo.

"[39] Jeffrey Wasserman, vice president and director of RAND Health, opined: "John Oliver's 'Jeff' character is of course a mockery of an iconic figure, the Marlboro Man, whose legacy turned out to be cruelly ironic.

"[26] In July 2015, Slant Magazine's Julia Pressman describes the "Tobacco" segment in her article "The British Dude Who Is Winning America's War on Bullshit", in which she features five ways Oliver "has owned 2015 thus far".

[42] Philip Morris International issued a statement which read in part: On February 15, 2015, the 'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver' show dedicated a significant portion of its program to our company [...] Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is a parody show, known for getting a laugh through exaggeration and presenting partial views in the name of humor.

And, like any other company with a responsibility to its business partners, shareholders and employees, we ask only that laws protecting investments, including trademarks, be equally applied to us.

[25]The statement also provided readers with a "balanced view", and facts about the issues raised by Oliver, including the company's marketing practices and "approach to regulation".

"[34] He noted that Philip Morris does not deny making legal threats to suppress regulations on cigarette packaging and questions how the company: "[expects] to be taken seriously when it readily admits that the products it sells are 'harmful to health'".