Tobacco

The Marlboro Man Goes Under The PR Knife

by Laura Miller — March 14, 2002 - 12:00am

Tobacco behemoth Philip Morris executives announced late last year that it was time for a full-scale corporate makeover centering on changing the company's name to Altria. "After spending the quarter billion dollars ceaselessly touting their philanthropic efforts, the tobacco giant still ranked second to last -- beating only exploding tire maker Bridgestone Firestone -- in a survey of corporate reputations, conducted by The Reputation Institute and Harris Interactive.

Main Source: 
CorpWatch, March 14, 2002

Hollywood Trade Mags Censor Anti-Smoking Ads

by Laura Miller — March 5, 2002 - 12:00am

"If there's anywhere anyone can advertise about anything, it's Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. ... But there's one ad neither of the Hollywood trades will run--the latest broadside from Smoke Free Movies, a health advocacy group that's been at the forefront of a no-holds-barred campaign against the proliferation of cigarette smoking in movies," writes Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times.

Main Source: 
Los Angeles Times, March 5, 2002

ABC Depicts Tobacco Flack Rick Berman as a Hero in the War Against "Eco-Terrorism"

by John Stauber — February 26, 2002 - 12:38pm

Rick Berman started ConsumerFreedom.com with $900,000 from the Philip Morris tobacco company. He is waging a corporate-funded smear campaign against public health, environmental and animal welfare organizations and the non-profit foundations that fund them.

Main Source: 
ABCnews.com, February 26, 2002

New Tobacco Documents Archive

by Sheldon Rampton — February 22, 2002 - 1:23am

More than 20 million documents related to the tobacco industry's scientific research, manufacturing, marketing, advertising and sales of cigarettes have entered the public domain thanks to lawsuits against tobacco companies. Now the Legacy National Tobacco Documents Library has made those documents easily searchable online.

Main Source: 
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/

Tobacco Industry Will Sue to Stop "Vilification"

by John Stauber — February 19, 2002 - 10:32am

The Lorillard Tobacco company doesn't want to be made to look like a villain, and so it is suing the American Legacy Foundation claiming that anti-smoking ads violate the historic 1998 settlement agreement that governs the industry. That agreement created the foundation and funded it with $1.5 billion dollars for PR, advertising and education to try to prevent smoking.

Main Source: 
New York Times

Ethical Puffery

by Sheldon Rampton — February 7, 2002 - 12:08am

British professor Roger Scruton, a libertarian pundit and self-proclaimed ethicist, has been fired from his gig as a columnist for the Financial Times after a leaked copy of his e-mail to Japan Tobacco International revealed that the tobacco company was paying him

Main Source: 
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/press/020124.html

Bad Mileage Is Good For You

by Sheldon Rampton — January 24, 2002 - 10:43pm

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is lobbying again against federal standards requiring automakers to improve automobile mileage of their cars. They claim that Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards force automakers to build smaller, more dangerous vehicles. As we document in our Impropaganda Review section, CEI has been flogging this argument for years, using questionable evidence. And who are they to talk about safety, anyway?

Main Source: 
http://www.cei.org/gencon/003,02307.cfm

Morality for Sale

by Sheldon Rampton — January 24, 2002 - 12:00am

Professor Roger Scruton, a darling of the moral right in England, asked one of the world's biggest tobacco companies for $5,500 a month to help place pro-smoking articles in some of Britain's most influential newspapers and magazines. "We would aim to place an article every two months in one or other of the WSJ [Wall Street Journal], the Times, the Telegraph, the Spectator, the Financial Times, the Economist, the Independent or the New Statesman," says the note, sent last October under the name of Sophie, his wife and business partner.

Main Source: 
The Guardian (UK), January 24, 2002

Tobacco Industry Attacks Anti-Smoking Advertisements

by John Stauber — January 23, 2002 - 12:00am

Bernard Stamler reports: "Its advertising is aggressive, and deliberately so. (Remember the body bags piled up outside Philip Morris headquarters in New York?) But although tobacco companies have complained before about the commercials made by the American Legacy Foundation, one company is now formally threatening legal action against the organization, apparently for the first time. The aggrieved company is Lorillard Tobacco of Greensboro, N.C., a unit of the Loews Corporation .

Main Source: 
The New York Times

Tobacco Lobbyist Talks Turkey, Shoots Messengers

by John Stauber — January 17, 2002 - 9:52am

A food industry website reports that lobbyist Rick Berman addressed Tuesday's annual meeting of the National Turkey Association. "What many of you don't understand is just how many different ways this industry is being attacked by groups. They are coming at you all from the animal rights side, as well as biotechnology, antibiotics hysteria, anti-corporate, labor and the factory farms angle. ...

Main Source: 
www.meatingplace.com
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