Harnet, Bertram ESQ.
Crohn, F.T.
Thanks to Richard Barnes of the University of California San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education for bringing this document to Doc-Alert's attention.
In December of 1980, James Bowling, the Senior Vice President of Philip Morris (PM), attended a holiday a dinner party where he complained to the other guests about insurance companies offering discounts to non-smokers(http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/tem87e00). Also attending the party was Frank Crohn, the Deputy Chairman of the National Benefit Life Insurance Company, who told Bowling that such discounts were not based on any actuarial reality and proposed Philip Morris start offering discount life insurance to smokers via packs and cartons low-tar cigarettes. Philip Morris apparently thought this was a great idea and proceeded with the plan.
This letter is a legal analysis (by the attorney for the National Benefit Life Insurance company) of PM's plan to offer "Merit Life-Saver" insurance to smokers through inserts placed inside packs and cartons of Merit low-tar cigarettes.
A mock-up of the promotional materials can be seen here http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ybb81e00. A letter from PM to smokers says,
"Dear Merit Smoker :
You probably have heard about life insurance discounts for non-smokers, but here is a first. Now you,a smoker of low-tar Merit cigarettes, have the chance to apply for high amounts of low-cost life insurance coverage ...and do it by mail in the privacy of your home or office."
The legal analysis considers the fact that the U.S. Surgeon General had declared cigarettes harmful to health, describes how the insurance company could skirt liability, and states (page --2233), "On the basis of the materials submitted, there should be no unfair or deceptive advertising practice, particularly if it is not inferred that smoking Merits is good for your health, better for you than other cigarettes, or earns any insurance advantage."