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INFOTAB/NMA WORI{SHOP B'russels, October 8-11, 1984 GENERAL Comments received'from participants a~fter the workshop, have shown that this was the most stimulating, useful and best-run workshop held so far. Its success was attributed to the choice of the guest speakers, a carefully planned programme with specially prepared "'hand-outs" and excellent technical and secretarial back-up services. PARTICIPANTS Altogether, there were 63 participants representing 27' coun- tries in Europe:(11),North America (2), Australasia (',2)', Latin America (3), Asia (4) and Africa (5). Twenty-two NMAs and five lead companies were represented and company representation came fromiPhilip Morris (9), B.A.T'. (5), , Rothmans (4), R. J. Pteynolds (3), 'Imperial (1), Tiedlemanns (11) and Burrus (1). The relatively low, participatio,n, from, developing countries can be explained by the fact that the 198'4 regional workshops in Latin America and Asia were very well attended, and several NMAs and lead companies were not prepared to foot the expense of sending delegates to two works!hops in one year. Efforts are being mad'e to explain that the regional and international workshop programme,s are complementary and hardlly duplicate each other. Ptepresentatives from Universal Leaf and Intabex attended' the "welcome"' dinner.

2 P'Bt(JGRAMME The main topics were the management of public issues, taxation, public smoking, understanding the media, the economic impact of tobacco, answering our critics, the question of courtesy, advertising and facingi the challenges on the international scene. The keynote address oni the management of public issues was deliveredi by Jacques Coup de Frejac, a senior consultant to, a French public relations agency. He stressed the importance of understanding, the basic emotionalismiof anti-smoking activists and fighting, emotionalism with a calm presentation of the facts. The! tobacco indiustry must present a positive profile, "a low profile is no profile". Capital is no longer the most important resource, but the ability to communicate is. We should move from the printed'~ dbcument more towards oral com- munication since this creates a listener, whereas the! printed word does not automatically create a reader. Peter Jackson,, editor of the London Sunday Times magazine, explained what was newsworthy from an editor's point of view. The selection of' news is essentially subjective andl if the industry would provide something new and interesting, it would probably be printed'. The use of selected journalists with an interest in a specific subject is far more effective than issuing hundreds of copies of a press release:. An anti-smoking press article should not be refuted immediately, as this would only get very small coverage, if any. It is much, better to produce a positive industry story some weeks later. The third guest speaker was Glen Smith, director of the British, Children's Research Unit, who presented some of his work done on children's responses to T.V. advertising. The comprehenisive research project undertaken by him in Australia, with the aid of' the T.I.A. and INF'OTAB, will be published soon. He has been able to show that advertising does! not necessarily influencee childrenita take up certain habits or buy particular products.

3 Several participants spoke about their countries' experiencess with taxation and, where applicable, highlighted' the methods used to successfully combat excessive tax increases. Economic impact studies condensed into concise brochures have proved! to be a valuable tool. The presentations on public/"passive" smoking issues created great interest and the need for industry support of objective research was stressed., The social acceptability of smoking remains a key issue and a presentation made by an Ogilvy and Mather director covered the form a courtesy campaign could~ take. Restrictions on advertising were still a matter, of considerable concern and the need to expedite the, recruitment of allies was emphasized. The advertising industry is, on the whale., now, squarely behind us, but it was felt that new allies should be sought among manufacturers of other "sensitive" products and in particular from those not stigmatised by transnational control. A most stimulating lunchtime talk by Paul de Win, Director General of the World Foderation of Advertisers, on "Consumerism - the Advertising Industry" had a rousing reception. New hand-outs at the workshop comprised up-dated sheets for the Industry in Action binder, a manual for use of the INFOTAB computerized data base, a Taxation kit, the Zimbabwe and Malaysian economic impact study booklets, the "Issues Binder" covering possibl!e lines of arg,umentatiion to counter several . major allegations, the revised CATAC arguments and a Courtesy campaign booklet. SOME REC©MMENDATIONS FROM DISC'lJSSIONi GRnUPS Good relations~ with the Press can be nurtured by feeding selected journalists regularly with selected information oni industry, matters. Particularly in developing countries, a hospitality service for journalists should be established in order to create a favourable climate in an

informal way. Journalists should be invited to visit leaf centres and other industry installations:. N'tedium/long-term planning is essential. INFOTAB should carry out a 10-1';5 year retrospective study among NMAs in a few selected~ countries where: a high level of controversy exists. The study would examine how and where the various issues arose and developed, what action was taken by the industry and what alternative lines of action,/arguanenta- tion they would adopt now in the light of the experience gained. From this basis more effective pre-emptive strategies could be! developed in countries where these issues are not yet controversial. - Obj'ective research on `passive" smoking should'~ be moree strongly supported by the industry. - In countries where the public smoking issue is still dormant, surveys of public attitudes towards smoking in public places may prove rewarding. - The recruitment/mobilisation of industry allies to help defend marketing freeddms should be accelerated. - The Sinoking and Religion (and Islam in particular) issue should be carefully monitored. - Economic Impact Studies should be undertaken in all leaf- producing countries. NMAs shouldl cooperate in establishing contacts betweeni objective medico-scientists in their respective countries.