Anne Landman's Collection
The Issues Raised in Hamish's Memo
Abstract
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch served for several years on Philip Morris' (PM) board of directors. This relationship served PM well, as indicated by this document which shows that information that could negatively affect the tobacco industry's bottom line was routinely withheld from Murdoch-owned newspapers worldwide:
"As regards 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."
Thsi week marked the public release of a film called "Outfoxed," which examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. (www.moveon.org) This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know.
A book about newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch (Murdoch: The Making of a Media Empire, by William Shawcross) credits Murdoch with nothing less than having "invented the modern media empire." A synopsis of the book on Amazon.com says (of Murdoch's extensive ownership of media outlets worldwide),
"Now [Murdoch's] reach includes two thirds of the Earth's population."
Fields
- Notes
This document was first posted on Doc-Alert on July 5, 2000.
- Quotes
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 with 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 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 with other newspaper proprietors. Murdoch's papers rarely publish anti-smoking articles these days. To sum up, then, on using our natural allies: We habe 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 in the future. Turning now to primary and passive smoking, I think we should concentrate on passive smoking where the statistical rvidence is more favorable to our cause...
- Company
- Philip Morris
- Author
- Author not stated. The document was found in the files of R.W. "Bill" Murray, who served as President and CEO of Philip Morris during his tenure.
- Region
- United States
- Australia
- Norway
- Icelenad
- Italy
- HOlland
- Germany
- France
- Canada
- Hong Kong
- Bahrain
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- Philippines
- Japan
- Zimbabwe
- Malawi
- Thailand
- Argentina
- Named Organization
- American European Community Association (Group through which Philip Morris worked to influence govern)
- EEC (European Economic Community)European Economic Community
- Food and Agricultural Organization (Branch of the U.N. that leads efforts to defeat hunger)
- FOREST (European smokers' rights group)Started in 1979 with 12,000 British pounds of tobacco and allied industry funding, this group was used by the tobacco industry to make pro-tobacco views appear to emanate from an entirely "independent" group. Smokers' rights groups (SRGs) were usually operated through public relations companies, to help maintain the appearance of distance from the tobacco industry. FOREST coordinated on issues with the British tobacco industry, and attended meetings of the industry group ICOSI. FOREST gave the tobacco industry the clandestine ability to introduce pro-tobacco opinions and defenses to society without fear of backlash against their products, or the burdens caused by legal liability for manufacturing the product. The industry organized SRGs internationally to create the appearance of a worldwide grassroots uprising by smokers against smoking restrictions worldwide.
- Herald Tribune
- International Tobacco Information Inc. (INFOTAB) (Int'l Tobacco Information Clearinghouse for industry, NMAs)ICOSI (International Commission on Smoking Issues) was formed around 1978. It was reorganized in 1980 or 1981 as INFOTAB. Infotab is an information clearinghouse that collects articles and legislatlve information. Data Is funnelled to Infotab by members of the industry. The founding companies are R.J. Reynolds International, BAT, Philip Morris, Reemtsma, Rothmans, Imperial andGallaher. The last three companies dropped in and out. A company had to give three years' notice to resign. BAT gave its notice to resign in late 1987 in conjunction with B&W's resignation from TI. BAT and B&W's resignations were partially because of the Barclay controversy. The companies pay the Infotab dues, but the beneficiaries include the national manufacturing associations(NMAs) . NMAs worldwide receive newsletters from Infotab. They can call and get information on various topics. G.C. Hargrove of BAT was on Infotab.
- Leo Burnett (Advertising/PR)Defense
- News Limited
- Newsweek (Weekly News Magazine (U.S.A.))
- New York Society for International Affairs (Accepts tobacco industry funding; funds trips for politician)Organization through which Philip Morris carries influences politicians in various countries. Used as a tool through which PM implements programs to influence politicians.
- Tobacco Advisory Council (TAC) (International industry advisory council)Tobacco Advisory Council
- Time Magazine - (weekly news magazine)
- UK Parliament
- Named Person
- Maxwell, Hamish (PM President c.1984)Took over at time of Cippolone. Cleaned house. Carried company into a strong defensive position.
- Murdoch, Rupert (Media magnate; Director at Philip Morris in 1994)Rupert Murdoch owns many media outlets including publications TV Guide, the New York Post and the Times of London (1994)
- Type
- REPT, REPORT, OTHER
- Litigation
- Stmn/Produced
- Subject
- Media influence (How tobacco co's worked to influence media coverage of their)How tobacco co's worked to influence media coverage of their point of view.
Document Images
APPENDIX 2
THE ISSUES'RAISED IN HM'S'MEMO
INDEX
Item Page
Communicating the industry's position
and point of view to the public. 1
Communicating to legislators and
regulatory agencies. 2
Paidladvertising. 3
Public relations andcommunications
activities. 4
Natural allies. 5
Primary andpassive smoking 6
Innovation. 7
Protecting our business 8
Lega1 inhibitions 8
THE ISSUES RAISED INIHAMISH°S MEMO
In~looking at the points raised, "communication" is a thread
common to many, so I will start by addressing this.
Most of PMI's~ efforts in~ communicating the industry"s
position and point of view to the public, has been directed'
towards the tax aspects of smoking and health rather thanion
the health aspects alone. As you know, the "Tell the Taxman"
campaign in the UK a couple of years agolwas 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, thoughi, outside the tax area, PMI's track record
on communicating the industry's view on health matters has
been 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 u~s. 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 N
W
we will. ~
.
In 11985, we are working,on two fronts.
We will be W
~
streng,thening local associations so that they can play a
- 2' -
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 serious difficulties in the
smoking and health area.
Our record in communicating to legislators andire ulatory
agencies, as opposed to the public, is somewhat better. Over
the years we have communicatedinot only about tax but also
about other issues more directly related to the health
question. These include health warning labels, marketing
restrictions, public smoking and so on.
Central to our approach to the communications problemihere
has been the network of political contacts we have developed
inimany 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 uiseful in
France in getting the vignette withdrawn. Elsewhere in the
world our political network has helped onitax issues in
Canada and in Australia, and we are using it in Hong,Kong to
defendour marketing freedoms.
- 3 -
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 Fhilippines and J'apan are all locations where
we will be adding to our corporate affairs strength. Next,
we are going to adopt a more systematic approach to
cultivating the "right" people. To date we may have been a
little haphazard~. 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 ad'vertising.
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 onideveloping a ~
W
campaign with Burnett. Once we have it, step one of our plan:
N
is to launch it in International English Language newspapers X
v3
and magazines such as the Herald Tribune, Time and Newsweek. ~
- 4 -
We will switch funds from our marketing budget to do this.
Our second step will be to build onithis 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
Australia this year. A leading film maker has been
commissioned~to produce a:film on the subject with smoking
and health as the 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 d'evelop
our network of contacts here. Likewise, we will be
scrutinizing,more carefully than we have in the past the
business benefit we can g;et from our corporate contributions
internationally. Smoking!and health will be one of the
points we will be looking at.
- 5 -
Our efforts to enlist the help of ou~r natural allies such a~s
the trade and growers are still a long,way from being as
effective as we would like, 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 in several
countries. Prominent have been the efforts they have made on
tax issues in~the UK where they were very involved in a
letterwriting campaign~to Members of Parliament. They also
helped in Australia to protect our marketing freedoms as they
did more recently imSwitzerland where they supported the
industry in a national referendtam on a similar issue.
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 Agricultural
Organization away from its anti-tobacco stance. Indeed, the
FAO~has made a 180 degree turn on this point. Countries
where we worked.close]!y with the growers, and wh~ich were
especially important in getting this change of position,
include Malawi, Zimbabwe, Thailand, and Argentina.
As regards our plans for using our natural allies more in the
future, we intendito 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 union~s 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 with them on issues more
directly related to smoking andhealth.
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 iniHong 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 with other 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
inithe future.
N
~
Turning now to primary and passive smoking, I think we should'N
~
concentrate on passive smoking where the statistical evidence 0111
is more favorable to our cause. The (x) survey, for example ~
~
~
~.
7
showed (y):, and the (a) report showed (b). We 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.
However, even thoughwe will be focusing internationally on
passive smoking,, and!even~though we will continue to test the
low sidestreamiconcept, we will not launchiany new sidestream
products yet.
And this brings me to innovation. Frankly, this is probably
the only real solution to the issues we are discussing 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'd!o more on producing an
odorless cigarette. The research here could look into
eliminating the direct odor caused by the smoke itself and
into eliminating the odor left by cigarettes in ashtrays.
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 h~as here. Arguably, it might not do
so since the legal systems are different - "Kings of Tort"
having no kingd'oms 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 We will switch fund's from our marketing budget to do this.
Our secondistep will be to buildion 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
~
Australia this year. A leading film maker has been 0
N
commissioned to produce a film on the subject with smoking N
and~ health~as the theme. If this works well, we will use it all,
elsewhere in 1986 andibeyond. ~
N~
