This Philip Morris (PM) document was written by two corporate image consultants who worked for Philip Morris in March of 2001. In the memo, the consultants discuss focus group sessions held to evaluate the damage done to Philip Morris' corporate image from several anti-tobacco television ads and adverse news segments. One TV news segment revealed that PM spends far more money to promote its charitable giving than it spends on the charitable giving itself. Another news segment highlighted the fallacies of "light" cigarettes. American Legacy Foundation anti-tobacco (and how they affected the tobacco company) were also discussed.
The consultants considered the news about PM's disingenuous charitable giving to be particularly damaging:
"The ABC News 20/20 segments appear to be the most effective and damaging to the company. There are two principal reasons why this message is so persuasive:
1. The message is simple: PMC spends more to talk than they do to give. There is tremendous persuasive punch to "$150 million to talk about giving $115 million." Like the best political attack messages, this is easy to understand and strikes people as wrong.
2. The message undermines the credibility that PMC has built in the last two years..."
The consultants also believed that a 60 Minutes II segment about the fallacy of "light" cigarettes was also damaging to the company "...for one big reason: for most people this is new information...this alone makes it potentially explosive and damaging (from both a legal and image perspective)."
These news segments and anti-tobacco ads were broadcast in the midst of a PM internal corporate project known as "PM21." PM21 was PM's effort (starting in 1999) to appear to be a more responsible, responsive and caring company. Under PM21, PM initiated a string of "feel good" ads (still ongoing) which highlight PM's contributions to food banks, disaster relief, domestic violence shelters, youth smoking prevention, etc. The tag line, "working to make a difference" was borne of the PM21 program. The main goal of PM21 was to "dispel misperceptions" about the company, to show that PM was "more than a tobacco company" and to help PM "speak up, state our case and take our rightful place in the societal, political and economic mainstream" (PM 2071720648/0652, dated 1999).