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ASH Daily News

Thursday, 21 October 1999

Headlines

Tobacco boss wins role in Zemin’s visit
Tobacco stocks hit by ruling
Ireland to ban tobacco newspaper ads by June 2000
‘Imminent Ban prompts a surge of tobacco ads’
Eurotunnel hit by end of duty-free and price rises
Businesses urged to consider ‘moral’ aspect
Profile of ‘retailer incentive schemes’
Customs monitor sales of cigs on nets
Business File: ‘Smoking in the workplace is unpleasant, but hardly
life threatening’

Full Text

Tobacco boss wins role in Zemin’s visit

Martin Broughton, head of BAT, is playing a key role in the Chinese
President’s state visit through a business forum set up by Tony Blair;
it emerged last night.

Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health, has written to
the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, objecting to the tobacco company’s
leading role in strengthening UK business links with China, the world’
s biggest market for tobacco. Clive wrote, “We would like to think
that Britain has something better to offer China and Tibet than
cancer, heart disease, emphysema and addiction”, he wrote.

Source: The Independent, 21 October, 1999

Tobacco stocks hit by ruling

‘Tobacco stocks plunged yesterday as a Florida appeal court ruled that
cigarette makers may be liable to potentially crippling punitive
damages in a landmark class action lawsuits.’

Analysts added that the ruling might increase the likelihood that the
industry would seek to settle the case.

The International Herald Tribune added, ‘Should the ruling survive an
appeal, it creates the possibility of an award that some analysts say
could bankrupt smaller tobacco companies’.

Source: Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, The Independent
& the Wall Street Journal Europe, 21 October 1999

Ireland to ban tobacco newspaper ads by June 2000

‘All tobacco advertising in Irish newspapers will be banned from June
2000. The Department of Health informed the National Newspapers of
Ireland (NNI) of its decision to bring forward the date of the total
ban’

The article continues ‘The NNI previously had agreed with the
Department that the ban would be phased in from next June, when
tobacco advertising on the outside back pages of newspapers would be
removed.’

Source: Irish Times, 21 October 1999

‘Imminent Ban prompts a surge of tobacco ads’

Tobacco manufacturers are to flood magazines and poster sites with ads
for new and lower priced cigarette brands before the ban on ads kick
in on December 10.

Imperial tobacco, alone, will be spending £5m on an ad blitz in
‘Marketing Week’. The paper also asks. ‘Will tobacco ad ban kill
marketing talent?’.

One conclusion is, ‘It could make marketers, into more technical
people, with a greater understanding of the law.’

Ray Hoolahan, of marketing recruitment agency Ball & Hoolahan,
believes the industry relations problems have not affected its ability
to attract personnel. “In general terms, nothing much has changed. The
industry has always been on the edge of attractiveness”.

Source: Marketing 21 October, 1999, Marketing Week, 21 October 1999,

Eurotunnel hit by end of duty-free and price rises

Huge price increases and confusion over the abolition of duty-free
resulted in a sudden drop in car and coach passenger traffic through
the Channel Tunnel. The company said it was due to the downturn in
‘booze cruises’ stocking up on duty free. Chairman of Eurotunnel,
Patrick Ponsolle said that it would take time to “adjust fully to the
new competitive situation”.

Source: Evening Standard West End Final, 20 October 1999 and the
Financial Times, The Guardian, 21 October 1999.

Businesses urged to consider ‘moral’ aspect

The Institute of Directors, in their official journal, Director,
argues that “slowly the broader green movement is winning the
argument” that social responsibility is as important a business
indicator as profitability.

It points out that recent examples, like the tobacco industry being
sued by customers, shows the potential dangers of not considering the
moral dimension.

Source: Evening Standard Late Prices Extra, 20 October 1999

Profile of ‘retailer incentive schemes’

‘Companies such as Coco-Cola, Unilever and Philip Morris, are trying
to side-line rivals by seizing control of distribution. They can then
squeeze others out of the best outlets and display positions.

The companies say they are merely using their resources to make sure
their products are easily available to customers.

Source: Financial Times, 21 October 1999

Customs monitor sales of cigs on nets

There is more coverage that shows Customs officers ‘keeping an eye’ on
the sales of duty free cigarettes to UK residents via the internet.
Customs adds, “There is no such allowance if people aren’t travelling
abroad.”

Source: The Mirror, 21 October 1999

Business File: ‘Smoking in the workplace is unpleasant, but hardly
life threatening’

In response to an inquiry from a reader who claims to be ‘a non-smoker
but I would defend the right of people to abuse themselves if they
want to’.

Professor Ernst Andersen, writes ‘ judging by the huddles of people I
see smoking on the streets…the anti-smoking zealots are winning the
day’.

He adds, ‘A secret ballot would be the fairest method, although
offices are hierarchies, so democracies may not come into this’.

Professor Anderson concludes, ‘Breathing other people’s smoke is
unpleasant, but hardly life threatening, whatever the health and
safety fascists say…Smokers must be considerate and potted plants (or
better still flowers) will help soothe the non-smokers’.

If anybody wishes to make a comment on this, letters to the editor can
be sent to:
Email: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk

Fax: 0171 538 6455
Source: The Daily Telegraph, 21 October 1999

Karl Brookes
Project Manager
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