Smokers, You’re Not Alone--Philip Morris : Free New Magazine Mailed to 150,000; ‘They’re Running Scared,’ Critic Says

Carrying what it describes as “general interest” articles, the nation’s first major magazine for smokers has made its debut here this week.

Philip Morris Magazine, published by Philip Morris U.S.A., will be mailed free to about 150,000 “persons interested in the company’s views on issues affecting smokers and nonsmokers alike,” according to Guy L. Smith, vice president of corporate affairs for Philip Morris U.S.A. and publisher of the new magazine.

The four-color, consumer-sized magazine will be published quarterly, Philip Morris U.S.A. said, and compares to publications produced by the automobile, travel, gasoline and airline industries. Its initial 33-page issue covers such topics as tobacco farming, how to cope with militant nonsmokers, a study finding that “those who smoke are slightly more productive than their counterparts who don’t,” and “the discriminatory nature” of cigarette excise taxes, as well as articles on travels through “Marlboro Country--America’s great Southwest,” the Philip Morris U.S.A-sponsored Vatican art exhibit and the “up-and-coming young stars” of the Philip Morris U.S.A-sponsored Virginia Slims tennis tournament. Also included in the debut issue are features on the history of Lite Beer (the bottler, Miller Brewing Co., is a division of Philip Morris Inc.) and a “nostalgic look back” at Johnny, the legendary “Call for Philip Morris” bellhop.

“We decided that our position wasn’t really being heard,” said Stuart Ross, a communications specialist for Philip Morris U.S.A. “There was a lot of media attention on the anti-smoking issue, and we felt that smokers needed to hear the pro-smoking side of the coin.”

Most of the initial direct-mail recipients of the magazine, Ross said, are “people who have written to Philip Morris U.S.A. for various consumer promotions,” such as Virginia Slims T-shirts, and people who have supported the industry’s position on issues. Ross said the magazine is aimed at those who already smoke, adding firmly that “we’re not trying to gain new smokers.”

“Just from the sound of it,” said Alan Byrn, assistant to the president of the Tobacco Institute in Washington, “I think it’s good for the industry to have something that does talk about smoking in positive terms.”

“Tobacco in the 200 years of this country has had a magnificent impact both culturally and economically,” Byrn added, “and I think a lot of people forget that.”

Not surprisingly, spokesmen for two of the country’s leading anti-smoking groups took a different view of the new magazine. “It’s a clever ploy on their part to try to defuse the smoking issue,” said Denise Kivlen, executive director of Californians for Nonsmokers Rights in Berkeley. “Public sentiment is definitely pro-nonsmokers’ rights, and this is another PR attempt. They’re really trying to blow their horn about their art shows and things like that.”

Bucking the Current

“Today I think the tobacco industry recognizes that smoking is rapidly becoming less socially acceptable,” said John Banzhaf III, executive director of the Washington-based ASH, Action on Smoking and Health. “This is probably an attempt to overcome that growing momentum.”

Since the 1964 Surgeon General’s Report--the first major government-sponsored study that linked smoking with such health hazards as lung cancer and heart disease--the percentage of smokers has dropped from an estimated 50% of the population to “about one-third,” the Tobacco Institute’s Byrn said. On their part, Banzhaf and Kivlen cite surveys completed in May of this year placing the number of American smokers at closer to 28%.

For that “large minority” of smokers, Byrn said, Philip Morris Magazine will serve an important purpose.

“People should know they’re not alone out there,” he said. “You talk to almost anyone on the street who is smoking, and the smoker feels he is singled out for being a smoker, that people are attacking him based on the fact that he smokes.”

The publication, Byrn said, “may come at a time when the pressures from anti-smoking groups mean that a lot of smokers feel they are being attacked personally for their personal behavior.”

‘Service and Information’

Calling the new magazine a publication of both “service and information,” Philip Morris U.S.A.’s Stuart Ross conceded that “We are also trying to help smokers live in a world where anti-smoking is becoming more and more prevalent.”

“It sounds to me like they’re really running scared,” Kivlen of Californians for Nonsmokers’ Rights said.

“That would certainly be my impression,” Banzhaf agreed, citing a “secret survey done by the tobacco industry in the late ‘70s” that showed, he said, “that the nonsmokers’ rights movement was basically the most serious threat to the domestic tobacco industry.”

“They are trying to blunt the social unacceptability of smoking,” Banzhaf said. “Also, they may be trying in some sense to rally smokers to their side or to their cause.”

Philip Morris’ Ross said he had no figures on the cost of the new magazine. The publication is not seen as an advertisement, Ross said, “because we’re not pushing any brand particularly.”

He said there were no plans for national sales or to take the magazine to such potential distribution areas as hotels or on airplanes.

In a way, Byrn of the Tobacco Institute said, Philip Morris Magazine is a way of catering to a specialty audience.

“There are magazines for runners, boaters and golfers,” Byrn said. “I can see no reason why there shouldn’t be a magazine for smokers.”