doc-alert

Anne LandmanPosting Date:  Thursday, January 12, 2006
Plans - ML
Document Date: 1993 (est.)
Length: 6 pages
Bates No. 2024104462/4467
URL of this Summary (with document images):
http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/2024104462-4467.html
Document Images: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/tba35e00

    This 6 page planning document, found in the files of Ted Lattanzio (Director
of Philip Morris Worldwide Regulatory Affairs c. 1994), lists strategies and
budgets for fighting public health laws to end smoking in workplaces and public
places.  Page 4 describes a strategy for dealing with public knowledge about how
childrens' health is disproportionately affected by exposure secondhand smoke:
  "Shift the debate on ETS [environmental tobacco smoke] and children to: Are
our schools and day care centers making children sick?"

    Tactics proposed for making the public believe that schools and day care
centers are making children sick (instead of secondhand smoke) include:

  "Feed available information to National School Board Association in D.C.  Feed
information to Oprah, et. al. Get sick children on the shows.  Research
newspaper clippings of parents who keep children at home because of school
environment--pass those on.  Why?  Shift the debate.  Why is EPA not spending
research dollars on solving school problem?? I have the research budget for next
year--not very much is going to identify or solve the school problem.  Get
information to EPA Watch."

Philip Morris' estimated budget for the blaming program was $100,000.

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Company
  Philip Morris 
  Region 
  United States 
  Named Person 
  Benda, George (CEO of the Chelsea Group, an industry proxy group that worked
to thwart clean indoor air laws) 
  The Chelsea Group works closely with Philip Morris to address the "threats" of
smoking bans, push ventilation solutions
  Tyson, Patrick (Counsel for Philip Morris) 
  Vandenbroucke, Jan P. ("low risk epidemiologist")
  Winfrey, Oprah (Popular American TV talk show host) 
  Named Organization 
  ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning) 
  Chelsea Group (Works as Philip Morris' proxy in clean indoor air issues) 
  CEO George Benda has traveled the country pushing ventilation as a solution to
the problem of secondhand smoke. 
  *EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) 
  IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO)) 
  International Agency for Research on Cancer - The cancer research arm of the
WHO. Conducted a multi-center epidemiology study on ETS, initiated in 1988, data
collection completed in 1994 and results were published in 1998
  Landis + Gyr Powers 
  Leiden Univ Hospital Netherlands 
  National School Board Association 
  Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Held hearings in 1994 to ban
smoking in workplaces) 
  OSHA opened hearings in September 1994 on a proposal that amounts to a virtual
ban on smoking in every workplace in the nation 
  Semco 
  WRA (Worldwide Regulatory Affairs - branch of Philip Morris corp.) 
  Worldwide Regulatory Affairs
  Litigation 
  Stmn/Produced 
  Type 
  REPT, REPORT, OTHER 
  AGEN, AGENDA 
  BUDG, BUDGET, BUDGET REVIEW 
  OUTL, OUTLINE 
  Subject 
  secondhand smoke 
  secondhand smoke strategy (Corporate strategy to deal with ETS issue) 
  secondhand smoke/health effects 
  media campaign 
  mass media 

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Letters to the Editor:

(The following was received in response to the posting of Monday, 9 Jan 2006
about RJR's Project Breakthrough, a massive, multi-year national ad campaign
designed to convince people that public health efforts to restrict smoking were
the re-emergence of the alcohol Prohibition movement of the 1920s:
  Anne,

      RJR also had an ad campaign called "The Roaring 2000's" which in both
image and text was an indirect reference to the era of Prohibition.   One
tagline was "The Speakeasy is Still Roaring."  In addition, the New York Times
had a "Style & Entertainment" supplement to the Sunday, March 26, 2004 edition
which was subtitled, "Roaring 20-Somethings," with such headlines as "Having fun
is starting to look like civil disobedience;" it included the following
paragraph: (my italics)
        "In the 1920's, conservatives were worried about everything from
Bolsheviks to bobbed hair to barelegged rebels destroying the polite social
order.  In the year 2004, conservatives are still getting their knickers in a
twist over rebels and body parts.
        Only yesterday they were prohibiting alcohol.  Today's Prohibition would
censor whom you can love, honor and obey - and don't even think of smoking a
cigarette afterward.
        Having fun is starting to look a lot like civil disobedience.  And the
smoking ban in New York restaurants and clubs has provided a boon for private
entertaining."
     How sad that the New York Times chose to buy (or should we say sell) into
RJR's PR plan.  I have been using this in my presentation on tobacco advertising
since it came out, so thanks for the document verification of what I knew but
couldn't prove!!!!!!
    
  Bonnie Sumner
    Wisconsin
--So it looks like RJR was still implementing Project Breakthrough in 2004. 
--Ed.

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