Philip Morris’ New Campaign Echoes Medical Experts
Tobacco giant Philip Morris Cos. has acknowledged that there is overwhelming evidence that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer and other diseases, in a series of public statements that all but merge the company’s stands on smoking and health with the views of leading medical experts.
The statements appear on a new company Web site being launched today as part of a lavish image-building campaign for Philip Morris, the world’s biggest cigarette maker and a leading marketer of food and beer through its Kraft Foods and Miller Brewing units.
Although the tobacco industry has been backing away in recent years from its past denials that smoking is harmful, the new statements appear to be a far more frank admission of the risks.
Along with statements about the dangers of smoking, the Web site says that smoking is addictive. It stops short of agreement that secondhand smoke is a proven cause of lung cancer and heart disease but says adults should minimize smoking around children to avoid endangering their health.
The Web site is being launched along with an expensive TV ad campaign highlighting Philip Morris’ efforts to combat a series of social problems.
The company and its rivals face a flood of lawsuits over illnesses linked to smoking and secondhand smoke, along with key legal battles over efforts to regulate the industry. It was uncertain if the Philip Morris statements might signal a change in courtroom strategy, though it appeared by their wording that certain of the company’s traditional legal defenses might remain intact.
Philip Morris’ public positions, and those of industry rivals, have been evolving over time from the absolute denials and scathing attacks on the U.S. surgeon general that made them an object of widespread derision. In recent years, for example, the companies and their lawyers have acknowledged that smoking is a “risk factor” for cancer and other ailments, while stopping short of calling it a cause.
Certain of the Web site statements are striking, however, for how little there is to distinguish them from the views of scientific and health organizations.
On the risks to smokers, the Web site says: “There is an overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other serious diseases. . . . Smokers are far more likely to develop serious diseases, like lung cancer, than nonsmokers. There is no ‘safe’ cigarette. These are and have been the messages of public health authorities worldwide. Smokers and potential smokers should rely on these messages in making all smoking-related decisions.”
Concerning addiction, it says that “smoking is addictive, as that term is most commonly used today. It can be very difficult to quit smoking, but this should not deter smokers who want to quit from trying to do so.”
Regarding secondhand smoke, it acknowledges that government agencies have concluded that it “causes disease--including lung cancer and heart disease--in nonsmokers. . . . Even though we do not agree with many of their conclusions . . . smoking restrictions are appropriate in a variety of contexts to help minimize unwanted” exposure.
Also being launched today is a $100-million-a-year TV advertising blitz aimed at putting a human face on the cigarette maker by spotlighting its charitable endeavors. In commercials set to air during top-rated shows, including World Series and “Monday Night Football” games, Philip Morris will highlight the problems of hunger, domestic violence, natural disasters and teen smoking, and its efforts to combat them. Each ad will end with the tag line: “Working to make a difference. The people of Philip Morris.”
“We have not been as open and accessible to people in the media and the public as we need to be,” Steven C. Parrish, senior vice president of Philip Morris, said in an interview Tuesday.
The idea is to “open a dialogue with a lot of people who, over the years, have been critics of ours,” Parrish said.
But the campaign, and particularly its focus on underage smoking, drew angry blasts from tobacco-control groups.
“It’s a brilliant public relations gesture designed to give Philip Morris cover to avoid government regulation and to continue the Marlboro campaign, which has made it [Marlboro] No. 1 among our nation’s children,” complained Matthew Myers, general counsel for the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids. “Philip Morris saying they don’t want kids to smoke is the height of hypocrisy.”
And while Myers said it was good that the firm is acknowledging the risks of its products, he said it was not attempting to atone for its decades-long campaign “to sow . . . doubt about the health effects” of smoking.
Parrish said the Web site smoking and health statements do not require the company to abandon certain of its standard courtroom defenses. He acknowledged that in lawsuits filed by smokers, Philip Morris can still argue that plaintiffs probably contracted diseases from another cause, were adequately warned of the dangers and should have tried harder to quit.
Nor, he said, do the statements mean the company is abandoning its legal fight to prevent the Food and Drug Administration from regulating cigarettes, or its defense of the lawsuit filed by Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn that seeks to require public warnings of the risks of secondhand smoke under California’s Proposition 65.
The new ads were created by the Leo Burnett agency, which has done work for the Kraft and Miller units and created the evocative Western-themed ads credited with making Marlboro the world’s leading brand. The public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, a veteran of the smoking wars, also advised Philip Morris.
Announcement of the campaign came a day after Lorillard Tobacco Co., the country’s fourth-largest cigarette maker, said it would launch its own program to fight teen smoking, featuring advertisements, youth scholarships and publication of a parenting guide. Like Marlboro, Lorillard’s flagship Newport brand has become a favorite of young smokers.
Philip Morris says it contributes about $75 million per year to charitable endeavors, including the arts and causes promoted in the ads. The company says it has committed another $100 million annually to combat smoking by underage youths. Tobacco critics have dismissed such efforts as attempts to buy respectability.
In recent years, tobacco companies have often used allies and surrogate groups to wage their political battles, but they successfully departed from that strategy last year in going directly to the public to help defeat sweeping tobacco-control legislation then pending in Congress. Critics complained that the $40-million campaign was deceptive, but the industry portrayed the bill as draconian and rallied sentiment against it.
But Myers of the National Center for Tobacco Free Kids says the message rings hollow. “If Philip Morris tells you they are a good neighbor, go to your nearest convenience store and take a look at the advertising for Marlboro in and around the candy counter and other locations frequented by children,” he said.
