Philip Morris Head ‘Ashamed’ Over ’75 Youth-Sales Memo

The head of Philip Morris Cos. on Tuesday said he was ashamed of the company’s attempts to market its product to young people.

During testimony in Minnesota’s tobacco trial, Geoffrey Bible, chairman and chief executive of the nation’s largest cigarette company, was shown a 1975 memo written by researcher Myron Johnston to Dr. R.B. Seligman.

“The teenage years are also important because those are the years during which most smokers begin to smoke, the years in which initial brand selections are made, and the period in the life-cycle in which conformity to peer group norms is greatest,” Johnston wrote.

“I’m ashamed of that, yes,” Bible said in response to questioning by Michael Ciresi, lead attorney for the state of Minnesota and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota, which are suing the tobacco industry to recover money spent treating ill smokers.

During his two days on the stand in a St. Paul courtroom, Bible was repeatedly shown memos discussing the youth market for the company’s cigarettes. He called each of the memos “an anomaly.”

“An anomaly to me is an unusual occurrence. Frankly, I wasn’t around then. It is certainly anomalous in the Philip Morris I know,” Bible said.

“We should not be marketing cigarettes to young people, but I believe we can market them to adults.”

Bible was called as a hostile witness in Minnesota’s lawsuit against the industry. The state and Blue Cross are trying to recover $1.77 billion they say was spent to treat smoking-related illnesses.

They also are seeking punitive damages, claiming the industry knew about the dangers of smoking for decades and hid that knowledge from the public while manipulating nicotine to hook smokers.

Earlier Tuesday, Bible maintained that a smoker’s addiction to nicotine is not the same as addiction to drugs such as cocaine. He said he has testified before Congress that he believes nicotine is behaviorally but not pharmacologically addictive.

That testimony, he said, was based on information provided to him by the company’s chief scientist, Cathy Ellis, who told him nicotine has “mild pharmacological effects.”

When asked Tuesday what would constitute a “mild pharmacological effect,” Bible replied, “I’ve just taken some Sudafed, and I think that’s mild.”

Bible, whose company produces Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Benson & Hedges, Philip Morris, Parliament and other brands, repeatedly stressed that he is not a scientist and does not understand much of the science underlying the industry.

On Monday, the 60-year-old Bible, who began his career at Philip Morris in the 1960s, testified that he could not name a single reputable scientific organization that disputes the causal link between smoking and deadly diseases. As for himself, Bible said he thinks smoking may cause illness, “but I just don’t know.”

When Ciresi asked him what he would do if “10 or 20 or 30 eminent physicians or scientists” tried to persuade him, Bible said he would probably “like to talk with those people . . . have them show to me or prove to me . . . that they were right.”

In the face of Ciresi’s indignant and sometimes sarcastic queries, the Australian-born executive remained composed and polite. He managed to get in several indirect plugs for the nationwide tobacco accord pending before Congress, creating the impression of addressing two juries: the one in court as well as the 535 lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Bible’s testimony was a reminder of the competing pressures imposed by the trial and the industry’s coveted goal of permanent relief, through the tobacco deal, from immense lawsuits such as this one.

In the Minnesota case and similar ones pending throughout the country, cigarette makers are denying that the risks of smoking have been proven, which is crucial to the claim that they did not knowingly market a lethal product.