Abstract
This 1985 speech from Philip Morris (PM) reveals much about PM's corporate manipulation of governments, the media and even smokers. According to the document, PM's relationship with newspaper magnate Rupert Murdoch (a long-time member of Philip Morris' board) went a long way towards erasing anti-tobacco coverage from newspapers around the world:
"...Another area we intend to exploit more fully is the ad agencies and media proprietors....As regard the media, we plan to build similar relationships to those we now have with Murdoch's News Limited with other newspaper proprietors. Murdoch's papers rarely publish anti-smoking articles these days...."
PM also cultivated "favorable press" about secondhand smoke by organizing journalists conferences where PM "educated" reporters on how to write "balanced" articles on secondhand smoke issues:
"...Turning now to primary and passive smoking...To get more favorable press, we are contemplating organizing another journalists' conference similar to the one we put together in Madrid for Latin American journalists in 1984."
In PM's evaluation of their enemies and their allies, the PM official who gave this speech acknowledged that the medical profession and government health ministers were their "formidable adversaries," and even acknowledged that most smokers wished they could stop smoking:
"I think we have to face up to the reality that the smoking and health lobby is winning. The anti-smoking zealots are becoming more vociferous, more experienced, better organized, and generally more effective. The medical profession is a formidable adversary. Health ministers sincerely believe smoking is bad. And, more important than all of this, is the fact that smokers wished they didn't smoke.
Perhaps we can't ever shift the balance back in favor of the industry but we have to keep trying..."
Despite acknowledging that most smokers would like to quit, rather than sympathize with this, PM believed they needed to use their control over smokers to organize them to help protect the tobacco industry:
First we must work harder at getting smokers to help the industry. If we are to have any success at changing the climate of opinion, we have to get the smokers more on our side, or at least enough of them to start to make a difference.
Fields
- Notes
This document has been posted in July of 2000, but it is so extensive I have covered different items of interest in this posting.
- Quotes
...[W]e will be scrutinizing more carefully than we have in the past the business benefit we can get from our corporate contributions internationally. Smoking and health will be one of the points we will be looking at.
...We have also helped organize growers in a number of countries. With their assistance for example, the industry was instrumental in moving the Food and Agriculture Organization away from its anti-tobacco stance. Indeed the FAO has made a 180 degree turn at this point. Countries where we worked closely with the growers, and which were especially important in getting change of position, include Malawi, Zimbabwe, Thailand and Argentina....
...Another area we intend to exploit more fully is the ad agencies and media proprietors. We have already been helped a great deal by the agencies in Hong Kong, for example, in our efforts to resist advertising restrictions. As regard the media, we plan to build similar relationships to those we now have with Murdoch's News Limited with other newspaper proprietors. Murdoch's papers rarely publish anti-smoking articles these days....
...Turning now to primary and passive smoking...To get more favorable press, we are contemplating organizing another journalists' conference similar to the one we put together in Madrid for Latin American journalists in 1984.
SOME NEW INITIATIVES
I think we have to face up to the reality that the smoking and health lobby is winning. The anti-smoking zealots are becoming more vociferous, more experienced, better organized, and generally more effective. The medical profession is a formidable adversary. Health ministers sincerely believe smoking is bad. And, more important than all of this, is the fact that smokers wished they didn't smoke.
Perhaps we can't ever shift the balance back in favor of the industry but we have to keep trying...
First we must work harder at getting smokers to help the industry. If we are to have any success at changing the climate of opinion, we have to get the smokers more on our side, or at least enough of them to start to make a difference. We need to help them feel better about themselves and we need their help in defending their industry. the National Rifle Association for example, with only 2 million members successfully protects a seemingly impossible cause. Can we find out how they do it and learn from them?
Another possibility is that we should put more money and effort behind programs to find out how it is that groups that were once socially acceptable suddenly became acceptable. In some ways smokers are like Vietnam Vets or even homosexuals. How is it that public opinion changes in their favor? Let's find out and learn from this...
...Third, we must attack the anti-smoking groups and zealots more confidently than we have in the past. If we can cool their zeal just a bit, not only might smoking as a subject become less of an issue, but also smokers might begin to feel less embattled.
Here perhaps we could commission a book on the "anti-industry industry" and show that our attackers actually make money out of their activities, a situation quite at variance with their image today.
Possibly, too, we can discredit our critics. John Banzhaf for example, is involved in the porno industry it appears. Can't we use this somehow? If we started to dig around, we will certainly find some anomalies we can exploit. Internationally, we will start looking at countries where we are under severe pressure...
- Company
- Philip Morris Cos., Inc.
- Author
- N/A (found in the area of Murray, RW(Bill)/Carlstadt
- Recipient
- N/A
RegionFrance
Germany
Greece
Holland
Hong Kong
Iceland
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Malawi
Norway
Philippines
Scandinavia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Thailand
United Kingdom
Zimbabwe
Argentina
Australia
Bahrain
Canada
LitigationN/A
TypePresentation materials
Speech
Subjectcorporate intelligence
economic policy
Foreign policy
Industry strategies
International level
international trade
mass media
media coverage
public policy
Strategy
Taxes
Advocacy groups
Conferences
Document Images
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THE PERSPECTIVE OF PM INTERNATIONAL
ON SMOKING AND HEALTH ISSUES
I'm going to~structure what I have to say around three points.
First I want to give you my view on how I see the smoking and'
health issue generally in PM International. Next, I will deal
specifically with the points raised andhere I will concentrate
on those which are most important to our international business.
I will end by suggesting,four things that we should look into
which could help improve our performance in the area of smoking,
and health.
Let me start then by some general comments:
(1) GENERAL COMMENTS ON SMOKING AND HEALTH
In thinking about smoking and health, the first thing,that comes
to comes to mind~ is product liability. Yet, internationally,
this has not yet become the issue that is has here and, frankly,
I doWt see that there is much we can~add'to a discussion of
this point. Clearly, it is of the gravest concern to all of us
since it poses a potential threat to the entire industry in most
places. As I see it, the best help we can offer is to make
doubly certain that we do nothing overseas that jeopardizes what
is going on here.
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There are, though, other smokig and health issues that we can,
and~ do, work on. Here I am referring to the impact that the
smoking and health debate is having on taxation, on marketing
freedoms, on public smoking, and more recently on passive
smoking. We are working on all these issues somewhere in the
world and our approaches depend on the specifics of each place.
Of all the concerns, there is one - taxation - that alarms us
the most. While marketing restrictions and public and passive
smoking do depress volume, in our experience taxation depresses
much more severely. Our concern for taxation is, therefore,
central to our thinking about smoking and health. It has
historically been the area to which we have devoted most
resources and for the foreseeable future, I think things will
stay that way almost everywhere.
Now I would like to address Hamish's issues:
(2) THE ISSUES RAISED IN HAMISH"S MEMO
In looking,at the points raised, "communication" is a thread
common to many, so I will start by addressing this.
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Most of PMI's efforts in communicating the industry's position ~'
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and point of view to the public, has been directed towards the ~
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tax aspects of smoking and health rather than on the health
aspects alone. As you know, the "Tell the Taxman" campaign in
the UK a couple of years ago was an example, as was the new
campaign which we and the T'.A.C. mounted just before this recent
budget. Both were reasonably successful. In Australia too,
through FOREST, we have awakened the public in the tax area with
carefully orchestrated campaigns.
Generally, though, outside the tax area, PMI's track record on
communicating the industry's view on health matters has beenn
poor. We have to do more. One problem has been that we have
relied too heavily on local associations and on INFOTAB to do
the job for us. We now realize that it is well nigh impossible
to get an agreed~"industry position" on smoking and health and
that we will have to do much more alone. And we will.
In 1985, we are working, on two fronts. We will be strengthening,
local associations so that they can play a better role in~
representing the industry on smoking and health. Holland is one
market where we hope to beef up the association for example. We
are also intending, to "go it alone" in some markets such as
Norway and in Iceland, where we are facing potentially quite
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serious difficulties in the smoking,and health area. Q
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Our record in communicating to legislators and regulatory
agencies, as opposed to the public, is somewhat better. Over
the years we have communicated not only about tax but also~about
other issues more directly related to the health questilon.
These include health warning,labels, marketing restrictions,
public smoking and~so on.
Central to our approachito the communications problem here has
been the network of political contacts we have developed in many
parts of the world~. We have political outreach programs which
help us on industry issues in most of our key markets. In the
EEC for example they have helped resolve tax harmonization
problems in Italy and Holland, and they are proving helpful in
Germany. They have also been useful in France in getting the
vignette withdrawn:. Elsewhere in the world our political
network has helped~on tax issues in Canada and~in Australia, and
we are using it in Hong,Kong to defend our marketing freedoms.
We are working in 1985 to improve our performance still further
in communicating to legislators. Our plan has three aspects.
First we are going to recruit more people and better people and
pay them.more if necessary. Bahrain, Stockholm, London,
Montreal, the Philippines and Japan are all locations where we
will be adding to our corporate affairs strength. Next, we are
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going to adopt a more systematic approach to cultivating the
"rig;ht" people. To date we may have been a little haphazardi.
Third, we are going to pay more attention to cultivating the
bureaucracy as opposed to just the top people.
The third point on the list is paid advertising. Communication
about smoking and'health issues through paid advertising is not
something we are doing at the moment, though we have definite
plans to do so in 1985. There are two areas which lend~
themselves to this approach - passive smoking and "Truth in.
Science".
As regards the former, we are working on developing a campaign
with Burnett. Once we have it, step one of our plan is to
launch it in International EnglishiLanguage newspapers and'
magazines such as the Herald Tribune, Time andiNewsweek. We
will switch funds from our marketing budget to dolthis. Our
second step will be to build on this campaign with inserts in
local papers in important markets. We are thinking particularly
of Germany, the UK, Australia, Hong Kong, and Switzerland as
appropriate markets for this type of approach.
~
We are mounting a pilot project on "Truth in Science" in C
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Australia this year. A leading film maker has been commissioned ~
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to produce a film on the subject with smoking and health as the ~
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theme.. If this works well, we will use it elsewhere in 1986 and
beyond.
We will also run paid~advertising in selected markets as local
conditions dictate on tax issues as we have done in the past.
I will not say any more about public relations and
communications activities beyond adding that we will continue to
make use of the New York Society and the AECA to develop our
network of contacts here. Likewise, we will be scrutinizing
more carefully than we have in~the past the business benefit we
can get from our corporate contributions internationally.
Smoking and~health will be one of the points we will be looking
at.
Our efforts to enlist the help of our natural al~lies such as the
trade and growers are still a long way from being as effective
as we wouldilike, but we are working at it. Here again, the
successes we have had have been principally, though not
exclusively, in the tax area rather than in health related
matters.
We have got the unions to support industry issues iniseveral ~
countries. Prominent have been the efforts they have made on
tax issues in the UK where they were very involved in a letter ~
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7
writing campaign to Members of Parliament. They also helped in~
Australia:to protect our marketing freedoms as they did more
recently in Switzerland where they supported~ the industry in a:
national referendum on a similar issue.
We have also helped organize growers in alnumber of countries.
With their assistance for example, the industry was instrumental
in moving,the Food and Agricultural Organization away from its
anti-tobacco stance. Indeed, the FAO has made a 180 degree turn
on this point. Countries where we worked~closely with the
growers, and which were especially important in getting,this
change of position, includ'e Malawi, Zimbabwe, Thailand, and
Argentina.
As regards our plans for using our natural allies more in the
future, we intend to do more onitax and health issues with the
growers in Europe where they can certainly help in big markets
such as Italy, Spain, and Greece. We will concentrate on doing
more with the unions and we have targeted~Holland, Germany and~
the Scandinavian countries generally, as markets where they can
be of immediate help on tax matters. Later, we will work withi
them on issues more directly related~to smoking and health.
Another area we intend to exploit more fully is the ad agencies
and media proprietors. We have already been helped a great deal
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- 8 -
by the agencies in Hong Kong for example, in our efforts to
resist advertising restrictions. As regards the media, we plan
to build~similar relationships to those we now have with
Murdoch's News Limited~ withiother newspaper proprietors.
Murdoch's papers rarely publish anti-smoking articles these
days.
To sum up, then, on using our natural allies. We have made a
start; we have proved that it can be done; we have found that
they can be a very effective force; and we intend to do more ini
the future.
Turning now to primary and passive smoking, I think we should
concentrate on passive smoking where the statistical evidence is
more favorable to our cause. The (x) survey, for example showed
(y), and'the (a) report showed (b). W'e will make more use of
this sort of material in the media in 1985.
To get a more
favorable press, we are contemplating organizing another
journalists' conference similar to the one we put together in
Madrid for Latin American journalist in 19:84.
N
However, even though we will be focusing internationally on 0
N
passive smoking, and~even though~we will continue to test the ~
low sidestream concept, we will not launch any new sidestream ~'
~
products yet. ~
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And this brings me to innovation. Frankly, this is probably the
only real solution to the issues we are d'iscussing,this morning.
Here are three possible avenues we should be exploring.
First, we should look for ways to identify and eliminate (or
substitute) the top ten most controversial compounds in
cigarettes. Second we should do more on producing an odorless
cigarette. The research here could look into eliminating the
direct odor caused',by the smoke itself and into eliiminating the
odor left by cigarettes iniashtrays. Third, we should view
sidestream products as an opportunity for real product
innovation from a marketing stand~point. We should, therefore,
adopt a more aggressive stance and we should have a free
standing,product ready. We should also be clear about how to do
a low sidestream Marlboro, even if we don't like the idea.
And this brings me to the last two points on the list -
protecting our business and legal inhibitions.
As I said earlier, the smoking and health issue has not yet
assumed the dimension it has here. Arguably, it might not do so
since the legal systems are different - "Kings of Tort" having
no kingdoms to rule over! All the while this is the case we
will protect our international business by making,it grow
wherever and however we can. If we can make inroads into the
Page 10: tus98e00
smoking and health issues this wi~ll help. However, in our
attempts to do this we will be more careful than ever to clear
anything which goes to the public with the lawyers in New York.
True, our legal inhibitions do make life more difficult than it
might otherwise be in some overseas markets. However, we fully
appreciate the seriousness of the issues and'I assure you that
PMI will work very effectively within~whatever constraints are
necessary.
And this ends my review of Hamish's list of issues and I want
now to talk about four initiatives.
(3) SOME NEW INITIATIVES
I think we have to face up to the reality that the smoking and
health lobby is winning. The anti-smoking zealots are becoming,
more vociferous, more experienced, better organized, and
generally more effective. The medical profession is a
formidable adversary. Health Ministers sincerely believe
smoking is bad. And, more important than all of this, is the
fact that smokers wished they didn't smoke.
Perhaps we can't ever shift the balance back in favor of the
industry but we have to keep trying. IDoing, all the things in
