Tobacco

Hollywood's Responsibility for Smoking Deaths

by Sheldon Rampton — August 8, 2002 - 10:00pm

"I have been an accomplice to the murders of untold numbers of human beings," writes Joe Eszterhas, the author of movie megahits such as Flashdance and Basic Instinct. "I am admitting this only because I have made a deal with God. Spare me, I said, and I will try to stop others from committing the same crimes I did." His crime? Making smoking look "cool and glamorous ... an integral part of many of my screenplays." Eszterhas says his moral awakening came after he was diagnosed with throat cancer, "the result of a lifetime of smoking. I am alive but maimed.

Main Source: 
New York Times, August 9, 2002

Tobacco Scams the Restaurant Industry

by Sheldon Rampton — August 6, 2002 - 10:00pm

For years the tobacco industry has been using restaurant trade associations as front groups in its battle to keep Americans puffing. Now this strategy is documented on a new web site hosted by the University of California-San Franciso. "If Big Tobacco can't buy hospitality groups to serve as fronts, it sets up its own," the site states. Examples include the "California Business and Restaurant Alliance" and the ""Beverly Hills Restaurant Association" (created by a Tobacco Institute PR firm).

Main Source: 
http://tobaccoscam.ucsf.edu/

Philip Morris Offers Advice on Corporate Responsibility

by Sheldon Rampton — July 22, 2002 - 10:00pm

"Even the executive from Philip Morris Companies Inc., the parent company of the largest cigarette maker in the United States, couldn't ignore the irony that he had been scheduled to speak about corporate responsibility," writes Marc Levy in an Associated Press report on a speech delivered on Monday by PM vice president David Greenberg.

Main Source: 
Associated Press, July 23, 2002

British American Tobacco Promotes Its "Corporate Social Responsibility"; Critic Say It's Just PR

by Laura Miller — July 14, 2002 - 10:00pm

"British American Tobacco (BAT) has vowed to plow on with its corporate social responsibility program (CSR) -- despite criticism that its first-ever CSR report is simply a PR exercise," PR Week writes. BAT's released its CSR report last week "after a series of face-to-face forums designed to establish dialogue with its critics." But according to PR Week, more than 130 organizations targeted by BAT refused to participate in the dialogue.

Main Source: 
PR Week, July 15, 2002

A Swedish Scientist on the Tobacco Payroll

by Sheldon Rampton — June 9, 2002 - 10:00pm

Ragnar Rylander, a respected Swedish scientist, has been doing research on the connections between environmental tobacco smoke and lung disease, research that has been secretly funded by the tobacco company Philip Morris. Rylander has been accused of manipulating his studies to suit tobacco interests, and of thus partaking in a "scientific fraud without precedent."

Main Source: 
Dagens Forskning [Today's Science], no 12, June 10-11, 2002

Big Tobacco Spied on Health Groups

by Sheldon Rampton — June 4, 2002 - 10:00pm

The Fleishman Hillard PR firm secretly tape-recorded the sessions of an anti-tobacco group as part of an effort in the 1990s by the tobacco industry to get materials about public health groups under false pretenses, according to a report in the June issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, June 5, 2002

More Dirty Tricks from Tobacco Flacks

by Sheldon Rampton — May 29, 2002 - 9:55am

Stan Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco who researches the lobbying and PR tricks of the tobacco industry, has just published two new papers on the topic in leading medical journals.

Berman Floats to the Top

by Sheldon Rampton — April 30, 2002 - 9:56pm

Tobacco, booze and restaurant industry lobbyist Rick Berman is sending around a news release crowing about being included in this year's list of "star rainmakers" in Hill magazine, a publication for Washington insiders "aimed at the 100 senators, 435 House members, 40,000 aides and tens of thousands in the influence industry whose work affects the lives of all Americans." Berman has also received two "pollie" awards from the American Association for Politica

Main Source: 
http://www.thehill.com/032002/rss_top.shtm

ActivistCash.com Picked for USA Today Hot Site

by Laura Miller — April 22, 2002 - 11:00pm

Tobacco, booze, and restaurant industry front-group website ActivistCash.com received "hot site" status in USA Today. "In the Internet age, all secrets are open secrets. With gleeful abandon, ActivistCash.com reveals the diverse and oftentimes surprising sources currently funding nonprofit activist organizations. From Mothers Against Drunk Driving to Greenpeace," USA Today writes. What's missing is ActivistsCash's own funding sources.

Main Source: 
USA Today, April 23, 2002

MBD's Tobacco Work Exposed

by Sheldon Rampton — March 19, 2002 - 8:18am

Last year Jack Mongoven, founder of the secretive PR spy firm of Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin, died of lung cancer, ironically becoming a victim himself of the very industry that helped make him wealthy.

Main Source: 
http://tc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/11/1/DC2
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