Brown & Williamson
790111 Surgeon General S Report.
Fields
- Type
- Letter
- Correspondence
- Date Loaded
- 23 Nov 1998
- Author
- Schwartz-S
- Grey
- Copied
- Ernst-P
- B&W
- Request
- I96
- Litigation
- 10004026
- Recipient
- Tighe-P
- B&W
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GREY ADVERTISING INC.
February i, 1979
M~. p,J. TighQ
B~OWN & WILL~A~ON TOBACCO CORPO~TION
16~0 ~est Hi~I ~treet
P.O. Box 35090
Louisville, ~ent ~cky 40232
II~ ax" Pat~
The pu~os~ of this lettsr ill to present Gcey's point-
of-visw on the implic~ions to Project. G of th~ new fi~ldings
• roleased in ~:he Surgeon General's Repo~ on January 11, 1979.
Ill,pORT H~GItL'~GHTS
The 1979 report appea~s to be far ~e definitive than
the one issued in 1964. ~In addition to ~e-~:ating the i~l~-
vi[ous fir~dir*~s, the new report Coflcl~dl~s~
J.• 54 ~i~.lic~n ~eric,ms ~m~k~, and 75% sta~d b~lfo~e
a~e 21. Smoking has risen dr~a~atically from 8.4% to 1~.3%
~'x~n~ young ,~omen ~md g±~'l~ in the last l0 y~ars. The rate
~n~J older wog'en h~s ro~ained cn~st~t~ while ~ollg m~n
it h~s fallen. In total, 6 million people I~nd~r age 211
s~ke (100,~100 12 or yQung~r).
2. A hi,~her percent~g~ of blacks smoke than dQ whi~s.
3. Blue collar worker~ sll~oke more thar~ do ~;~ 1~o~
al~fl~ent occupati~al s~qments.
4. Asbestos, uz~mi~, ~bb~z" and ch~nical ~d~s~:~y
w~rk~rs who smoke run up to ~ t~es the ~sk of developing
l~lg ce~r them w~rkers who do1%1~, smok~.

rt
Mr. p.J. Tiqhe -2-
F~bruary i~ 1979
5. Women who are ~regn~nt and Smoke s~d a greats~
chance of retarding fet~l growth.
6. Children of women who smoke are ~e likely to
hav~ m~asurable deficiencies in physical growth and devel-
opment.
7. There have bee~ slight de~llnes in 1978 in both
the percentage of A~ricons smokingl and in the total ~-
s~m~tion of cigarettes.
I~LICATION S/DI SCUS SION
To dat~ ~ns~mer r~action and, for tha~ matter, public
reaction in general to the new SG RspOrt ha~ been minimal
if not almost non-sxist~nt. ~ether this i~ because of
rel~ti~ly light m~dia ~verag~ beyond the I/ll an~ounce-
• entsp effective Tobacco Institut~ co~teri~ 0f ~erQly
apathy on the part of the public because o~ an increasing
distrust of the growing number of government ~pQrts
"d~ing" ~veryth~g from hamburgers to th~ air you breathe
as being bad for you is hard to say, In all probability i£
was a combination of th~ three. One thing is clear hOWever,
Secretary califano a~d the anti-smoking forces will do th@i=
bes~ to ke~p the report a~d the issue mllve.
Xt is our feeling that ths information centered in the
report will "drlbble~' out over ti~e, i.s. the expected re-
lease of the gas issue in June or there aborts. As the
information is released it will tend to hav~ a cll~ulatlve
building effest, increasing puSli~ awareness of th~ issues
and forcing ~ore california Proposition 5 type ~nfrontatlons.
Additionally, it can be expected that awareness of whichever
issues surface as the most pro~inent~ bo they gas or sc~e
others, will ultimately build in the cons%t~ers' mi~d and
therefore ~ventually be t~a~sl~ted into new positi~nings/
prod~cts by the cigarette indnstry ~o eapit~llze upon ths
opportlLnities. What %his all ~e~s to us is that we fully
~xp~ct the low delivery segment of the market to r~main
"th~ ~ain ~rena" as smokers react to new i~o~,ation. The
implication for Projech G aro clear...~reat potential with
one major ~isk; that being mis~in~ the Opportunity bscauso
Of faulty product positioning. We m~st attempt to clearly
define where we are going early on enough s~ that w~ o~n
capitalize on each and ~very eppsrtt*~%ity. The parallel
develop~o~t of the "low tar/~ood taste" ~d ~low gas"
positienings is a good ~irst step, What we need to do
is ~et a handle on what is the best positioning within
these two areas as soon as possible.
\

Mr. P.J. Tigh~ -3-
February i, 1979
In the I~eantime, We have socured a Copy Of the full
S~rgeo~ General's Report and plan to review it in the hop@8
that we might be able to identlfy potential areas which
will be surfacing in the upcoming month~.
Please give me a cal~ i~ y~u want to dis~sm this
letter in any greater detail.
B~Bt regard5 r
stephen D~ SchWartz
SDS~dls
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