We’re disgusted by Big Tobacco’s dirty tricks.

The tobacco industry has been targeting and exploiting women for over 80 years. Enough already! Now that we know some of their ploys, we know we would never give them any more of our money.

Here’s something very telling: If tobacco company executives believe that the products they produce and market are good, wouldn’t they use their own products? Guess what – They don’t. They know better than that. They don’t use tobacco, they just want us to, and they’ll do almost anything to get our money. Dave Goerlitz, actor and former Winston model, recalls the day he offered a cigarette to some tobacco company execs and was turned down. “Oh, we don’t smoke the s_ _ t,” the men informed Dave. “We reserve that for the young, the poor, the black and the stupid.” (Thanks a lot, guys.)

In 1994, the CEOs of the major tobacco companies swore to tell the truth to the United States Congress. Then they lied. They said that nicotine is not addictive.

Click here for an interesting "rear view" representation of the above photo!

Verdict: Guilty!

After all the damage they’ve done, after all the people they’ve made sick and killed and all the loved ones that have been left behind, the tobacco companies still plot new, slick marketing campaigns and fight every attempt to rein in the scourge they have brought upon unsuspecting people. The United States Department of Justice sued the major tobacco companies under the civil racketeering (RICO) law and in August 2006 they were found guilty of conspiring to defraud the American people by lying for decades about their marketing to children and about the health risks of tobacco use. In her ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler found that the fraud is still continuing. Her ruling states: "The evidence in this case clearly establishes that Defendants have not ceased engaging in unlawful activity... Their continuing conduct misleads consumers in order to maximize Defendants revenues by recruiting new smokers (the majority of whom are under the age of 18), preventing current smokers from quitting, and thereby sustaining the industry" (pages 1604-1605 of the opinion).

Tobacco companies have officially been found guilty of racketeering.

More detailed information about the Department of Justice Department lawsuit is available on the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids website and the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium.

Secret documents revealed!

Much of the evidence that convicted the tobacco companies in the Department of Justice lawsuit and that has been presented as evidence in liability lawsuits by victims of tobacco-related diseases came from the companies’ own internal documents. In 1998, as part of the Master Settlement Agreement with the states’ attorneys general, the major tobacco companies agreed to make their files of secret memos, letters, reports, etc. available to the public. Millions of documents are now open to the public, accessible and searchable through websites such as www.tobaccodocuments.org, www.legacy.library.ucsf.edu and the websites of the defendants, Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard and Brown & Williamson tobacco companies.

Here are just a few of the many significant documents that have been identified so far:

A 1969 Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company memo summarizing plans to promote doubt regarding the “body of fact” that smoking causes disease and death.

A 1973 Lorillard Tobacco Company report describing research on girls and women and discussing strategies for targeting this group.

A 1980 R.J. Reynolds report on a study of smoking patterns among 14 – 17 year olds.

A 1993 Philip Morris Corporate Affairs Plan describing the company's strategic rationale for befriending and contributing financially to ethnic and minority groups

A 1991 report to Philip Morris’ marketing department that explains how the company benefits from appearing to support restrictions on marketing to youth. It turns out that portraying tobacco use as an “adult” behavior makes it more appealing to teens. (The company also uses its support of youth prevention as a marketing tool in an attempt to paint themselves as good corporate citizens.)

The public is welcome to search the documents and can share what is found. Links can be forwarded to Anne Landman for Doc-Alert consideration.

Promises, promises…

High-ranking Philip Morris executives publicly announced in 1954, 1972 and 1997 that, if their products were ever proven to cause disease, the company would immediately stop manufacturing them. Of course, their own private communications now reveal that they have known for decades that their profits were coming from the sale of “defective” products, products that cause disease and death when used exactly as intended.

Finally in 1999, Philip Morris admitted on its own website that “there is an overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other serious disease in smokers.” In 2002 the company placed advertising inserts in newspapers across the country that directed readers to their website for information on the “serious health effects of smoking.”

So why is Philip Morris still manufacturing cigarettes?
Are we shocked that they can’t be trusted to keep their word?

Here are just some of the tricks that tobacco companies have pulled to keep their deadly products selling:

• They developed so-called “light” or “low tar” cigarettes which deceive and soothe smokers who are concerned about health risks into switching brands instead of quitting. These products are just as dangerous as “full-flavored” cigarettes.
• They created candy-flavored cigarettes with enticing names to lure new, young customers.
• They arrange for depiction of tobacco use in G, PG and PG-13 rated movies, which is a major influence in smoking initiation by young people.
• Now that clean indoor air laws are being implemented across the country, limiting opportunities for smoking, so-called “smokeless” spit tobacco products such as chew, snuff, dip and the new snus, are increasingly being promoted. How glamorous! Can you say oral cancer? Can you picture the results? Sean Marsee used spit tobacco because he believed it was safe. He wanted others to see his pictures and read his story.
• Hookah bars are popping up in some cities. These devices may facilitate evasion of clean indoor air laws because, while they do burn tobacco, they are not cigarettes. A few experiments with this fad can leave trend seekers addicted to nicotine.
• Tobacco companies quietly increased the nicotine yield of the major cigarette brands by 10% between 1998 and 2004, making it more difficult for smokers to quit and probably causing unexpected drug interactions for many people.

Who are these tobacco company schemers?!?

Why do they think it’s okay to lie to us, take our money and spend billions to promote products that would make us and our families sick?

Unfortunately, some of us must share responsibility for what has happened. If we own stocks in a tobacco company, or a mutual fund that does, or if our retirement fund does – we are part of the problem. If we are students, alumni, faculty or staff members of a university that accepts tobacco company funds for any purpose (buildings, scholarships, research, etc.), we are part of the problem. If we are affiliated with an organization that accepts tobacco funds for any purpose, we are – you guessed it – part of the problem.

We are right to wonder how anyone who works for a tobacco company – executives, lobbyists, advertisers, salespeople, factory workers and farmers – can sleep at night. While there is no excuse for the many illegal, immoral and unethical practices that tobacco companies employ to stay in business, it is important to understand that publicly owned corporations are obligated to make profits if they (legally!) can. The company executives cannot unilaterally do what we wish they would do – see the error of their ways and close up shop. Their stockholders can propose and adopt resolutions, though, and the rest of us can also be agents of change by rejecting any association, however indirect, with these convicted racketeers.