Tobacco Documents Online

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.

This 1987 Philip Morris (PM) draft planning document outlines how PM planned to influence tobacco-control activities European and Middle Eastern countries. It reveals that

"Philip Morris and the industry are positively impacting the government decisions [on tobacco issues] of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE through the creative use of market specific studies, position papers, well briefed distributors who lobby, media owners and consultants..."

Philip Morris was also concerned with smoking and Islam, because the Islamic religion apparently prohibits smoking. In response to this major impediment to sales, PM planned to:

"5. Work to develop a system by which Philip Morris can measure trends on the issue of Smoking and Islam. Identify Islamic religious leaders who oppose interpretations of the Quran which would ban the use of tobacco and encourage support for these leaders."

planned to "drive" the thinking of scientists on the health effects of secondhand smoke

This Philip Morris (PM) 5-year plan describes actions PM took to address smoking and health issues around the world between 1980 and 1984. Several passages of the Plan indicate that poorer and lesser-developed countries provide more favorable markets for cigarettes for several reasons: Firstly, people who are more desperate for their survival tend to pay less attention to smoking and health, and the governments and medical establishments of these countries tend to follow suit: [From Page 64]:

"Smoking and Health is not yet considered to be a crucial issue by the Egyptian Tobacco Industry...and Health is not an issue among the general Egyptian populace who are more concerned with day-to-day survival and consider smoking to be one of their few pleasures in life. The health question...is not considered to be a priority by the [Egyptian] medical profession."

The poorer economies of less-developed countries also help Philip Morris because the governments of these countries are more heavily dependent on tobacco taxes for income, and thus less apt to restrict tobacco marketing, use and advertising:

From Page 65-6:

"In general, little official governmental attention has been paid to smoking and health in Africa and the African Health Ministers, where they exist, have not taken a strong stand on this issue. This is in large part because most [African] governments are preoccupied by other priorities (economic and social development), and because cigarette advertising and tax revenues are important to the African economies. Therefore, governments are not inclined to impose restrictions which might jeopardize this income."

PM also understood that if religious leaders and doctors in Africa took a strong public health stand against tobacco use, it could affect cigarette consumption "because of the mentality of the Africans":

From Pg. 66:

"Smoking and health is of little concern to the African people and it seems not to be a popular issue among them. However, if an anti-smoking campaign supported by religious leaders and/or the medical profession is developed, this could seriously affect consumption because of the mentality of the Africans, and their faith in their religious leaders and doctors."

PM also recognized that a high rate of illiteracy means a populace will rely less on printed reports for health information, which benefits the tobacco companies. The following passage discusses the high rate of illiteracy in Nigeria and how health information from the "outside" was starting to affect "the upper class" (which presumably had higher literacy rates than the general population): From Page 68:

"As not less than seventy percent of the Nigerian population is illiterate, Nigerians form their opinions on smoking and health almost exclusively on the basis of rumor and superstition. The population is becoming more aware of the allegations against smoking largely because of press coverage from outside reports. The prevalent attitude in model developed countries has some impact on the upper class..."

PM also found that increasing levels of wealth and education in underdeveloped countries tends to work against cigarette manufactuers:

"Future Developments and Their Effect on Philip Morris' Activity

As Nigeria's wealth becomes more evenly distributed among its population and a greater number of Nigerians become educated, the spill-over effect as regards smoking and health may become more evident..."

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."