Tobacco Products Liability Project
Fax Message re: Imperial Tobacco Ltd. Documents
Abstract
Critically evaluates references to IT documents in the Analysis Regardign the FDS's Jurisdiction over Nicotine Containing Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco Products by the FDA, particularly explaining the background to Project Viking; Project Day; and marketing researchs commissioned by IT challenging assertions by the FDA that tobacco manufacturers know the addictiveness of cigarettes and that they targeted their products at youngsters.
Fields
- Notes
Project Viking; FDA - Jurisdiction; smokers - attitude; Project Pearl; Project Day; never starters; quitters; cigarettes - safe cigarettes; cigarettes - low irritation cigarettes; cigarettes - new smoking materials; cigarettes - smokeless cigarettes; cigarettes - aromatic cigarettes; cigarettes - pre-formed pipe plugs; cigarettes - dry snuff;smokers - teens; smokers - new smokers; Project Viking; market - consumer market; market - market share; smoking and health - debate; advertising - advocacy advertising; nicotine - knowledge of addictive property; quitting; smoking - relaxation; smoking - enjoyment of physical sensations; cigarettes - use as social tool; nicotine - addiction; cigarettes - alternative to conventional cigarettes; Edmonton Exploratory Phase; tar/nicotine ratio; filter - technology; tobacco - purification; tobacco - treatment; nicotine - delivery systems; smoking - relaxation; smoking - social drawbacks; smoking - health implications; Project Eli; Focus Group; Cigarettes - low tar and nicotine; smokers - concerns of low tar and nicotine cigarette smokers; craving; smoking - taste and satisfaction; Project Plus/Minus; Project 16; late starters; smoking - youth smoking; tobacco - pharmacological effects; smoking - psychological effects; smokers - realization of health effects; smokers - rejection of addictiveness of cigarettes; smokers - rationalizations; smokers - views on quitting; adverstising; brand selection; advertising - tobacco advertising and adolescents; tobacco advertising - direction at young people; parental authority; smokers - attitudes of teen smokers; Matinee Marketing Plans; Matinee;60 Fed. Reg. 41453
- Date Loaded
- 08 Jan 2003
- Type
- Memorandum, Fax message
- Author (Organization)
- Wiley, Rein & Fielding
- Named Person
- Brown, Ian
- Brohman, Carole (BW Marketing Information Director)
1998- Seggev, Eli
- Brohman, Carole (BW Marketing Information Director)
- Named Organization
- Imperial Tobacco Co. (Determined optimum nicotine levels for cigarettes)Did testing pre-1972? of U.K. smokers and concluded that the optimum nicotine delivery for the cigarette, and that stepwise reductions in delivery caused progressive rejection by consumers (see Project Wheat)
- United States Food and Drug Administration
- Creative Research Group
- Marketing Systems, Inc.
- Kwechansky Marketing Research, Inc.
- United States Food and Drug Administration
- Copied
- Bernick, David M.
- Wells, John Kendrick, III (BW, Assistant General Counsel)
In a 1/17/85 memo, BWT corporate counsel J. Kendrick Wells said he had advised Earl Kornhorst, BWT's VP for research, development and engineering, on the need to prune scientific reports from his files. Wells marked certain reports with an X to designate those that were "deadwood in the behavioral and biological studies area". The Janus studies--secret program of biological research on the effects of smoking which showed tumor growth in animals--should be treated as "deadwood". These documents should be segregated, boxed and put in the basement for possible shipment to BAT Industries in England, but no one "should make any notes, memos or lists of the documents" (LAT 8/2/94). - Wells, John Kendrick, III (BW, Assistant General Counsel)
- Recipient (Organization)
- Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation (B&W)Subsidiary of BAT U.S., located in Louisville, KY.
- Author
- Krulwich, Andrew S.
- McGrath, William A.
- Recipient
- Appleton, Bernard Scott, Ph.D. (BW Environmental Toxicologist, Industry Expert)Director of Regulatory Affairs, Brown & Williamson (1991)
Document Images
[Tobaccol companies.., understand that many of their consumer~ would like
to quit but are unable to do so. [Citing, inter alia Project Plus/Minus, p. i.]
D. 60 Fed. Reg. 41671 & n.346
Market research documents also show that tobacco companies have
conducted research in quitting behavior and have documented the reasons why
people quit and why they fail to quit, despite a desire to do so. [Citing Project
Viking Vol. ILl and Project Plus/Minus pp. 41-51]
COMMENTS: The study makes no mention of advertising as a motivating or
recruiting device among young people. Although the study explores the difficulties •
cited by these respondents in quitting, it concludes that the psychological and social
factors are much more responsible for those difficulties than physical factors. The
study overall demonstrates that reasons for smoking are a complex mix of factors.
To the extent the study is cited to demonstrate B&W's "knowledge" of the
difficulties of quitting, it would be helpful to know why ITL authorized the study and
how it was or was not utilized.
V. DOCUMENT:
DATE:
Project 16
October 18, 1977
Kweehansky Marketing Research Inc.
Imperial Tobacco Corp.
SUMMARY: Project 16 was a marketing study conducted using four discussion groups
of smokers aged 16 and 17 in Toronto and Pctersborough, Canada. At the time of the
study, the legal smoking age in Toronto was 16. See p. 32. The study notes that,
while social pressures against smoking had increased over the preceding decade, teen
smoking remained constant or increased. Noting that "how the beginning smoker feels
today has implications for the future of the industry," the study sought to "learn
everything there was to learn about how smoking begins, how high school students feel
about being smokers, and how the foresee their use of tobacco in the future." [p. ll.
The rescuers encouraged the groups to discuss how they became smokers and how
they felt a~b~ut smoking. [p.2}. The participants were also shown a series of
advertisements for both tobacco products and other products and asked for their
reactions. [p.31.
The majodty of the 97-page report is taken up by quotes from the participants.
The conclusions reached are fairly mundane -- the major factor behind youth smoking
is peer influence and the desire to be part of a group; the "forbidden" nature of the
i
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product also provides dome attraction, as does concealing it from parents. -Smokihg is
also used by teens ~s a way to pass the time, and as a social prop or crutch.
The study finds that most teenage smokers begin "serious" smoking at the age
of 12 or 13. [p. 12]. While defiance of parental authority did not, according to the
study, constitute a significant factor in starting, the subsequent conflicts were found to
create familial hostilities that might not otherwise exist.
The study also indicates that some teens "regret" the fact that they began
smoking. This regret stems from the fact that smoking has now become a habit; that
their early belief that "they could experiment with cigarettes and not, as they put it,
'get hooked;" that "they are in a distant sense concerned with smoking and health;' an
that social pressures made them feel "second class" as smokers. [pp. 65-66]. The
study indicates that over half of the participants wanted to quit 'someday" and that
some had attempted to quit and found it difficult. [pp. 70-711. (As the focus groups
were limited to current smokers, those teens who had successfully quit were not
represented.) The study indicates that the failed quitters interviewed return to smoking
for many of the same reasons as adults. "It could be a time of stress, feelings of
depression, seeing others smoking, and so on. All of these things and more conspire to
break the quitters [sic] resolve." [p. 71]. The section regarding teen attitudes
concludes:
Smoking seems to feed on itself. The adolescent treats it as a
thrill, a part of breaking away. The teen is "hooked,' admits the risks,
but smokes anyway. Barring a drastic shift in adolescent attitude, or
drastic governmental action, smoking will be around for a long time to
come. The cycle seems extremely difficult to break. [pp. 81-82].
With regard to advertising, the study found that most respondents viewed it "as
always self-serving and often false." [p. 87]. The study characterizes the respondents
as "cynics about the glamour that they perceive advertising is trying to link to ordinary
products" iid.]. The study contains an anecdote of one respondent reacting negatively
to a cigarette ad which she interpreted as attempting to make cigarettes look
"glamorous." She responded "how could it be? They show it one way and then you
walk down the street and see some old bum puffing on one." [p. 88]
FDA REFERENCES:
A. 60 Fed. Reg. at 41330 and n. 120
[R]eseareh conducted for a Canadian affiliate of one U.S. cigarette finn focused
on the need to attract young consumers, stating:
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Ads for teenagers must be denoted by a lack of artific-iality, and a
sense" of honesty. Attempts at use of celebrities * * * do not seem to
really click. If freedom from pressure and authority can also be
communicated, so much the better. [at p. 97].
The bulk of Project 16 appears directed at a fairly innocuous discussion
of reasons youths began smoking. The effect of advertising on that decision is
never even discussed. The decision by the researchers to include a discussion
of teen reactions to various tobacco and non-tobacco advertisements, however,
may be construed as demonstrating an intent to reach the youth market.
However, all respondents were of legal smoking age. More importantly, the
study concludes that teens react cynically to the glamorizations of "ordinary
products," including tobacco, in advertising. [!3. 87-88]
Information on how the advertising conclusions, as well as the report as
a whole, were utilized would be helpful.
B. 60 Fed. Reg. at 41331 & n.145
Cigarette manufacturers are also aware of the difficulties young people
encounter when they try to quit smoking. Studies prepared for a Canadian
affiliate of a U.S. cigarette company state:
However intriguing smoking was at 11, 12, or 13, by the age of
16 or 17 many regretted their use of cigarettes for health reasons and
because they feel unable to stop smoking when they want to.
[Quote repeated at 60 Fed. Reg. 41671-72 & n.348 as part of jurisdictional
analysis]
C. 60 Fed. Reg. at 41670 & n.339
[Tobacco] companies.., understand that many of their consumers would like
to quit but axe unable to do so. [Citing, inter alia Project 16, p. vi.]
COMMENTS: FDA attempts to bootstrap research into "difficulties encountered in
quitting smoking" into a conclusion that cigarette companies knew that nicotine was
physically addicting, a gross oversimplification. The study as a whole indicates that
the decision to begin and continue smoking is a complex one, largely driven by factors
of peer pressure and social comfort.
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VI. DOCUMENT: Matinee Marketing Plans 1971
DATE: unknown
BY." unknown
FOR: Imperial Tobacco Corp.
SUMMARY: Generally deals with plans to capitalize on Matinee brand's low tar
content to increase market share, predicting that high tar smokers will trade down as
health concerns and social pressures increase.
FleA REFERENCES:
At
60 Fed. Reg. 41688-89 & n. 384.
A report by ITL also focused on the importance of developing low-yield
cigarettes that address smokers' concerns about health, but that
nevertheless provide the desired "physiological satisfaction":
"A cigarette that delivers physiological satisfaction, yet is low in
T & N, must surely be a major objective and represents an R&D
challenge."
COMMENTS: FDA cites the report in the midst of a discussion pointing out tobacco
company research seeking to maintain levels of nicotine in cigarettes while reducing tar
(a concept actually tested to consumers with little positive response in Project Day).
The instant report discusses ITN's desire to market its pre-existing Matinee brand
emphasizing the low tar and nicotine content "in a positive manner in relation to
smoking and health considerations." RepotS, at 2. There is no discussion regarding
manipulating nicotine levels, and tar and nicotine are never distinguished within the
report. FDA contorts of the use of the word "physiological" to have a medical or
scientific connotation not contained within this marketing report.
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