Anne Landman's Collection
Direction for Altria
Abstract
This November 2001 Philip Morris internal email between executives suggests that the company's name change from "Philip Morris" to "Altria" is to divert attention away from the company's ties to tobacco and pull attention instead towards a more positive image of "compliance, responsibility, philanthropy, environment...all the things we want Altria to be identified with." The email was written by James Spector, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at PM and was sent to Thomas Collamore, Vice President of Public Affairs at PM, and Steve Parrish, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for PM USA. Spector writes:
"I know we have shied away from setting a revised purpose/role for the Altria Group, but in the current environment this seems like a perfect time for us to define the 'new' Corporation the way we want to... While on the face of it, it is just a name change, we also have the opportunity to highlight many of the iniatives that were already in place under PMCos Inc., but were unable to breakthrough becaues of the name confusion. We can begin to focus attention away from tobacco, and on to compliance, responsibility, philanthropy, environment, etc., all the things we want Altria to be identified with..."
Fields
- Quotes
From: Spector, James Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 12:25 PM TO: Collarmore, Tom; Parrish, Steve Subject: Direction for Altria
I sat in on Nicoli's Issues Watch Salon yesterday which I think can be a very valuable tool for us, particularly in this changing world. As a result of some of the discussions I wanted to get your views on a project I think would be worthwhile pursuing.
I know we have shied away from setting a revised purpose/role for the Altria Group, but in the current environment this seems like a perfect time for us to define the "new" Corporation the way we want to, especially within Corporate. While on the face of it, it is just a name change, we also have the opportunity to highlight many of the iniatives that were already in place under PMCos Inc., but were unable to breakthrough becaues of the name confusion. We can begin to focus attention away from tobacco, and on to compliance, responsibility, philanthropy, environment, etc., all the things we want Altria to be identified with. We can also start to build a distinct internal culture as well. I think it would be a worthwhile exercise to study how other corporations attempt this, and then to bring the key stakeholders together...Daragan, Lowey, Greenberg, Rogers, etc. and begin to develop a strategic direction for the company...
- Company
- Philip Morris
- Author
- Spector, James (PM Corp. Affairs VP c. 1997-98)Director, Consumer Survey Associates c. 1992, was apparently later hired by Philip Morris and was Vice President of Corporate Affairs at PM in '97-98 (2070907716/7717)
- Recipient
- Collamore, Thomas J. (PM Public Affairs VP (1997-present))VP of Corporate Affairs Admin-Policy at PM c. 1993 Vice President of Public Affairs for Philip Morris, c. 1997-01 and continuing.
- Parrish, Steven C. (PM, Sr. VP, General Counsel)Partner of industry law firm Shook Hardy and Bacon before going to work for PM. Was VP of PM Corporate Scientific Affairs in 1990. Defends PM on television.
- Region
- United States
- Type
- EMAI, E-MAIL
- Litigation
- Feda/Produced
- Named Person
- Daragan, Karen (PM Corp. Affairs, Public/Media Relations)Manager of media relations for Philip Morris USA 1993-94. Later worked with Carolyn Levy in PM's youth smoking prevention department.
- Greenberg, David I. (PM Gov't Affairs VP 1990, VPCorp. Affairs, PM EEMA Region 9)Vice President PM USA 1989
- Lindheim, James B. (Executive VP and Dir. of Public Affairs of Burson Marstellar)James B. Lindheim worked for Burson Marstellar public relations company c. 1989. By 1996, Lindheim had opened his own consulting business, J. Lindheim and Company, and was still consulting for Philip Morris.
- Lowey
- Nicoli, David P. (PM Washington Relations Office, c. 1992-94)PM Legislative Council, 1992. PM Washington Relations Office, 1994.
- Rogers
- Operation/Project
- Project Capricorn (Philip Morris' project to change name to "Altria")
- Named Organization
- Altria (Philip Morris' new name, 2003)
- Altria Group
- PM Companies, Inc
- Subject
- Corporate image
- Corporate philanthropy (Company giving behavior)The giving of money to causes by a company, usually in a manner that makes the company appear altruistic to the public. Corporate philanthropy is usually done to achieve public relations or political gains.
- Corporate strategy
Document Images
