> Know Your Enemy

NEW!!! See the $51 Billion Commercial here!!

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The TOBACCO INDUSTRY attempts to gain public trust through corporate image campaigns.

Their true motive: Money

WHAT WOULD YOU DO FOR $51 BILLION?

Would you lie? In 1994 the seven chiefs of Big Tobacco stated under oath that nicotine was not addictive; their own top secret documents were made public and revealed that they lied to congress and the American people.

Would you conceal your identity?

Would you shred documents?

Tobacco Executive Admits to Document Destruction and Alleges Bribery
Law.com- December 10, 2001

"A tobacco company executive said he authorized the destruction of close to one million documents that might have aided plaintiffs in their suits against cigarette manufacturers. He also alleged the industry bribed international officials, according to documents made public by a leading tobacco critic in Congress."

Would you mislead the public?

"Former employees' testimony (stated) that tobacco giants Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco both 'covered up and concealed biological testing, shut down labs, and destroyed documents that showed cigarettes were dangerous and caused cancer.'"

"Philip Morris and RJR, 'along with the other cigarette manufacturers, have, over the course of decades, misrepresented, concealed, suppressed, and failed to disclose information known to them concerning the addictive and harmful properties of their product. The defendants have affirmatively misled the American public.'"

Source: PR Newswire, 2003-01-29
Author: Source: Robert Weiner Associates; Mary Alexander & Associates

Would you spend millions of dollars to buy political support?

Would you fight against legislation that protects human life?

This document outlines how Philip Morris successfully fought a proposed smoking ban in Austin, Texas.

Would you deceive your customers?

"William Farone, former director of applied research at Philip Morris, testified... that Philip Morris had the technology to produce a Marlboro Light cigarette that was truly a safer cigarette and knew that consumers perceived the term 'light' to mean a safer product, but chose not to make their top brand safer."

Source: PR Newswire, 2003-01-22
Author: Source: Carr Korein Tillery



Would you target youth with a deadly product?

This brief Tobacco Institute discussion paper outlines the actual purposes of the industry's "youth smoking prevention" programs:

"...Bait anti-tobacco forces to criticize industry efforts. Focus media attention on antis' extremism. Anticipate and blunt antis' strongest points."

"Seiz[e] the political center and forcing the anti-smokers to an extreme..."

"...Align industry with broader, more sophisticated view of the problem, i.e. parental inability to offset peer pressure..."

"...[Make] the public aware that the industry says it is trying to do the right thing..."

Also see Tobacco Industry Youth Smoking Prevention Programs: Protecting the Industry and Hurting Tobacco Control (Adobe pdf file)



Would you addict teenagers?

"To ensure increased and longer term growth for Camel Filter, the brand must increase its share penetration among the 14-24 age market…which represent tomorrow's cigarette business."
-RJ Reynolds, 1975

"The success of Newport has been fantastic during the last few years. . . the base of our business is the high school student."
Lorillard, Inc., Makers of Newport Cigarettes- Internal Memo



Would you study kids so you can manipulate them?

“The adolescent seeks to display his new urge for independence with a symbol, and cigarettes are such a symbol since they are associated with adulthood and at the same time adults seek to deny them to the young.”
Marketing Research Report
October 18, 1977

In order to determine whether hyperactive children would become cigarette smokers, Philip Morris conducted a study of grade schoolers: “We wonder whether such children may not eventually become cigarette smokers in their teenage years as they discover the advantage of self-stimulation via nicotine."
[1974 R.J. Ryan, Philip Morris, “Relationship Between Smoking and Personality" in Smoker Psychology Report]



Would you sell a product that kills fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, parents and grandparents?

A product that kills 420,000 Americans every year?


 
Just one of the major American Tobacco companies made $51,00,000,000 in tobacco revenue in just one year. 


What do YOU think the tobacco industry would do to protect that kind of money?

For more information, check out some of the resources below.

Tobacco Documents Online-
This site is an online collection of documents from the Tobacco Industry. It offers detailed searching of those documents and allows one to browse various tobacco-related collections as well as private documents.

Tobacco.org - news and information-
This site contains national and international news/information regarding the practices of the Industry and the progress of advocates worldwide.

Legacy Tobacco Documents Library-
This site contacts almost 7 million documents related to tobacco advertising, manufacturing, marketing, sales, and scientific research. These documents can be viewed on the site or downloaded.

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Advertising Gallery-
This site explores the advertising schemes for the Tobacco Industry. This site has ads that have been placed in various print ads and television spots.

Quotes and Facts (Powerpoint presentation)-
This Powerpoint presentation has quotes from tobacco executives and facts and trends relating to tobacco prevention.

Quotes-
This is an Adobe portable document file (pdf) that contains lots of quotes by Big Tobacco. This is an excellent tool for enraging teens about the manipulative tactics of this multi-billion dollar industry.

Adobe pdf files require the free Acrobat Reader. !