Tobacco Industry Tactics Kelley Lee, MPA, MA, DPhil, DLitt, FHEA, FFPH London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Learning Objectives To identify key tactics used by transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) to... Increase consumption Minimise regulation Avoid public criticism and liability To describe examples of direct and indirect tactics from a wide range of countries To draw lessons for strengthening tobacco control 2 1
Section A Increasing Consumption of Tobacco Products Direct and Indirect Tactics Industry Goal Increasing consumption of tobacco products Direct Tactics Marketing and advertisement of tobacco products Indirect Tactics Sponsorship Brand stretching Co-branding Product placement Product design Minimising regulation Lobbying of policymakers Corporate hospitality Front groups Undermine public health advocates or regulatory bodies Avoiding public criticism and liability Product development Public relations Corporate social responsibility Paid consultants Industry-funded scientists and research institutions 4 2
Marketing and Advertising Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco, c. 1870 WD & HO Wills, c. 1840s Egyptienne Luxury Cigarettes, c. 1900 5 Marketing to Emerging Markets Cambodia Russia Bangladesh Burma 6 3
Encouraging Female Smoking Virginia Slims, You ve come a long way baby campaign, U.S.A. (1970s) Lucky Strike, Czech Republic and Spain (2005) 187M (2002) Winston, JTI, South Africa 532M (2025) 7 Candy Cigarettes Source: Trinkets & Trash. (2007). 8 4
Encouraging Youth Smoking Source: Trinkets & Trash. (2007). 9 Encouraging Youth Smoking Industry needs to recruit 5,000 new customers each day in the U.S. alone... the base of our business is the high school student. Lorillard (1976) We were targeting kids, and I said at the time it was unethical and maybe illegal, but I was told it was just company policy. Sales representative, R. J. Reynolds (1990) 10 5
Encouraging Youth Smoking: Business as Usual? Music event, Brazil, 2007 Kool s regional basketball championships, Papua, New Guinea, 2002 TTCs agree not to take any action, directly or indirectly, to target youth... in the advertising, promotion, or marketing of tobacco products. Master Settlement Agreement, 1998 11 Flavored Cigarettes Source: Institute for Global Tobacco Control. (2007). 12 6
Product Placement We must continue to exploit new opportunities to get cigarettes on screen and into the hands of smokers. Hamish Maxwell, PMI President, 1983 Superman II (1980) Men in Black II (2002) My Best Friend s Wedding (1997) 13 Product Placement in Movies Viewing smoking in movies strongly predicts whether adolescents initiate smoking Effect increases significantly with greater exposure Adolescents who viewed the most smoking in movies were almost three times more likely to initiate smoking than those with the least amount of exposure Source: Dalton, M. et al. (2003). 14 7
Sponsorship of Sports, Arts, and Other Events Sports Academia Arts 15 Brand Stretching Pakistan Global Thailand Czech Republic Source: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. (2007). 16 8
Co-Branding Co-branding: using multiple brand names together on a single product or service so that consumers see it as a joint enterprise, and companies combine forces in their marketing efforts Mobile email and applications are essential to helping British American Tobacco senior executives communicate and access information during their travels across the world and through many time zones. In order to protect its entire RIM BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) environment, British American Tobacco... decided to implement Neverfail Source: YouTube. (2007). 17 9