This'll Make You Gasp

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"Philip Morris, the manufacturer of Marlboro ... created a crack team to transform the insides of Britain's upmarket bars and music events, in an attempt to boost its profits," reports The Observer. Marketing documents from 2004 that the newspaper obtained detail how Philip Morris offers gift certificates to bar owners for displaying furniture, ashtrays or vending machines with Marlboro's logo. In a "subliminal" approach, bar lounge areas the company calls "installations" or "Marlboro Motels" include no logos, just "comfortable red sofas in front of video screens showing scenes redolent of Wild West 'Marlboro country' to convey the essence of the cigarette brand while circumnavigating sponsorship bans." Philip Morris also specifically targets young, affluent smokers at "high-profile music events where attractive female 'Marlboro models' would sell cigarettes." But Philip Morris isn't alone; now that Britain bans tobacco ads, "all that former advertising money had to go somewhere," an industry insider told The Observer.