DeBardeleben, M.Z.
Sanders, E.B. Dr.
This internal Philip Morris memo recounts from the industry's point of view how Canadian tobacco control advocates made such strong in-roads against the industry in Canada. It describes what the industry considers effective strategies used by its opposition. The document tells how Canadian advocates,
"...decided to play hardball with the tobacco industry, countering every [industry] move with their own strategic response. They carefully timed their press releases to coincide with actions by the industry, and their headlines were bold and provocative: WILL TOBACCO INDUSTRY DECEPTION OUTMUSCLE PARLIAMENT? or GANGRENE AND TOBACCO. They accused legislators of collusion with the industry, or conflict of interest, by scheduling news conferences in the legislators' own districts and suggesting that their constituents question the integrity of their elected representatives. They retained Canada's most prestigious law firm to deliver an opinion on the personal liability of tobacco company executives for failing to warn the public that cigarettes are lethal and addictive. When that opinion stated that, according to Canadian tort, charges of criminal negligence could be filed against the executives, the organizations stood mute for nine months until the day the tobacco industry was making its case against the proposed Tobacco Products Control Act before the House of Commons. The news headlines then screamed: JAIL TOBACCO BOSSES, GROUP SAYS."
The document also describes the industry's responses to the developments in Canada. These include filing lawsuits against the Canadian Tobacco Products Control Act (which increased cigarette taxes, banned major forms of tobacco advertising, provided smoke-free workplaces and public places, limited brand-name sponsorships and provided for stronger warning lables on packaging), tobacco farmers filing suit against the Canadian government for excessive cigarette taxes, spending millions on campaigns that portrayed the tobacco industry as defenders of freedom of speech, offering more coupon discounts to get around the increased tax, advertising in American magazines that are read widely in Canada to get around the advertising ban, etc., incorporating new companies under their most popular brand names so they could contiue sponsorships, plus:
"Small shopkeepers were enlisted to write protests to members of Parlaiment; the letters 'some with deliberate typographical errors to create an aura of authenticity,' were prepared by the industry for the shopkeepers.
Rather than reveal additives in its cigarettes, RJR-Macdonald stopped using them.