Immediate :  Wednesday 15 August 2001

The Truthbehind Big Tobacco's claims to “Ethical Marketing”

ASH today dismissed reportsthat the world's three biggest tobacco companies are drawing up plans torestrict advertising and marketing as as nothing more than a cynical andpredictable PR ploy.

Britsh American Tobacco,Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco International have published a new report,“International Tobacco Products Marketing Standards” containing a set ofguidelines which claim to be aimed at ensuring tobacco advertising does nottarget young people. This move follows an advertising campaign from the samethree companies on MTV earlier this year, claiming to be trying to persuadeteenagers not to smoke. In fact, the real reason that the companies arepublicising activities like this is to persuade Governments not to take strongmeasures to control tobacco advertising - a tactic which internal industrydocuments show they have been using for many years. An internal Philip Morrismemo from 1991 says that the “ultimate means for determining the success” ofindustry-funded youth anti-smoking initiatives would be:

“1) A reduction inlegislation introduced and passed restricting or banning our sales andmarketing activities; 2) Passage of legislation favorable to the industry; 3)greater support from business, parent, and teacher groups.” [1]

The memo did notmention a reduction in youth smoking being a success criterion.

John Connolly, PublicAffairs Manager at ASH, said:

“This would be funny if itwasn't so cynical. It's no coincidence that these plans are being prepared atthe same time as Governments around the world are talking about banning tobaccoadvertising. This is the tobacco industry getting together to say toGovernments, ‘we've changed. We know we did bad things in the past, but you cantrust us now'.

“All the evidence frominternal tobacco industry documents suggests companies have conceived andpublicised youth prevention programmes to forestall serious regulation andgarner better PR. It's just not in their interest to do anything meaningful tostop young people smoking.”

ENDS

Notes

[1] Philip Morris memo fromJoshua J. Slavitt, “TI Youth Initiative,” 12 February 1991. A scanned versionof this document is available at http://www.pmdocs.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=2500082629

[2] An ASH report on this issue,“Danger, PR in the Playground”, is available on the ASH website.

Contact:  

John Connolly (ASH) 020 77395902 (Office) or 07702 817477 (Mobile)

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