Operation Downunder
(PM Corp. strategy to deal with ETS issue) On June 24-26, 1987 Philip Morris held the Operation Downunder Conference to determine a new strategy to deal with the ETS issue, which was eroding sales. The conference was attended by fifteen people, seven of whom were high-up PM executives (see list of attendees at PM 2024270519)and the balance of whom were public realtions people, attorneys from Covington and Burling, etc.To deal with groth of smoking restrictions and increasing social pressure against smoking in public, PM launched a comprehensive scientific, political and public relations program, Operation Downunder, based on the assumption that science has not established a health risk to non-smokers from ETS. Ideas listed in the Operation Downunder Conference Notes for dealing with the ETS issue included starting a science journal of their own, acquiring a major media outlet, undermining the surgeon general, suing people who said ETS expsure harmed health, making politicians fearful of being "anti-tobacco" and adopting a new stance on accommodation for smokers and non-smokers.