tobacco

The Ohio state legislature has seized $230 million from to the state's Tobacco Prevention Foundation and diverted it other uses. In the late 1990s, Ohio and other states sued the major tobacco companies to recover billions of dollars spent treating sick smokers. Tobacco companies settled the suit by signing the historical 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), and agreeing to pay billions out to the states. The tobacco companies and the National Association of Attorneys General originally claimed that the purpose of the MSA and its payments was to reduce smoking, but on May 7, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland signed a bill to abolish the state's Tobacco Prevention Foundation and confiscate most of its money. Legislators claimed the money was going to an economic stimulus package, but shutting down the Foundation caused the layoff of 27 advertising employees who handled the Foundation's anti-smoking ad campaigns.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is suing NextClick Media, Inc., an Internet advertising company, over Web sites they operate that offered "free 10-day trials" of an herbal stop-smoking patch called "Nicocure," "Stop Smoking 180" and "Zero Nicotine." The sites claimed the product worked better than nicotine patches and had a "97% success rate." People who signed up for the "free trial" got a 30-day supply instead of a 10-day supply, then were told they had to pay for all 30 days if they chose to keep it. If they returned the product, they were assessed a $7.95 restocking fee. People who agreed to the "free trial" also found themselves enrolled in a "continuity program" that automatically billed their credit or debit card a monthly charge of up to $99.95 until they canceled. Customers found contacting the company to get out of the arrangement nearly impossible. None of the costly terms of the "free trial" were disclosed on the company's Web sites. After the FTC sued the company, NextClick agreed to halt its deceptive practices.

An April 7, 2008 citizen journalism task asked people to investigate tobacco industry brainstorming documents at the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library. That request led to a marvelous blog titled "The Sick and Crazy Science Tobacco Companies Pursue to Get You Hooked," posted on Alternet by Scott Thill, in which he describes some of his finds, including a bizarre research project to investigate the effect of a chemical in cigarette smoke called nitric oxide on cat penises. From nacho cheese-flavored cigarettes to on-pack contests to win everything from Clearasil to used celebrity underwear, tobacco industry brainstorming documents contain an untold number of bizarre marketing, advertising and product design ideas. Thill's blog praises TobaccoWiki's Brainstorming documents page, as well as citizen journalism and the new ways that research wikis are allowing people to compile and share information.

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we look at what Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and Chile's Patagonia region have in common, and how Unilever is adjusting its cause-related marketing. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we remember one of Burson-Marsteller's old front groups. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

Fear-driven marketing gets resultsThe Second Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals missed a great opportunity this week to hold the tobacco industry accountable for one of its worst marketing tactics -- positioning cigarette brands in response to smokers' medical concerns. The April 7, 2008, issue of the New York Times has an article about the dismissal of a huge, class-action lawsuit against the tobacco industry that was brought by smokers of "light" cigarettes who claimed they were misled about the relative safety of "light" cigarettes compared to regular, "full flavor" cigarettes. The suit, and its dismissal by the court, brought to mind a little-recognized tobacco industry marketing survival tactic that weighs heavily on the public's perception of exactly what "light" means.

The tobacco industry has long had a remarkable ability to rescue itself from damaging health claims by turning allegations against its products into marketing opportunities. Inside the industry, the fact that cigarettes cause widespread illness and death is referred to as the "smoking and health" issue, or "S&H issue" for short. Tobacco marketers consider "S&H issues" to be little more than "external marketing forces" that require re-positioning of products, through changes in advertising copy strategy, so that smokers will get an illusion of safety from the dangers they perceive.

A rock cocaine cigarette filter? A cigarette that delivers birth control and sexual stimulant drugs to the smoker at the same time? A geriatric brand? All of these are actual ideas for new products and promotions that were recorded at cigarette company "brainstorming" meetings. Information about these revealing meetings is compiled on the Brainstorming documents page of TobaccoWiki. It's one of the strangest and most fun pages on SourceWatch. What crazy, weird or sick ideas can you find among the tobacco industry's documents? Go to the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library and, as search criteria, mix and match words like "brainstorming," "synectics," "exploratory" or "problem lab" with words like "promotional" "smoker," "ideas," "sex," "cigarette," "list," and "creative." Be imaginative in your search criteria and see what pops up. When you find something interesting, enter it on the Brainstorming documents page with a short description of the document after the link, or write a short article about it. Don't forget to link to the document using its unique URL -- the one that contains the letters "tid". For examples see the Brainstorming documents page. If this is your first time editing on SourceWatch, you can register here, and learn more about adding information to the site here, here and here. Hold onto your hat, have fun, and thanks for your help!

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we look at Al Gore's not-so-green PR firm, who cares about the FDA, and a strange definition of "civil rights." In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," how Big Oil is courting the blogosphere. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

Tobacco company R.J. Reynolds is running print and TV ads against the proposal that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulate tobacco products. The bill would also ban candy-flavored cigarettes. The TV spot (at right) shows a vaudeville plate spinner, and says that the FDA has enough on its plate already without this extra burden. "But the bill tries to address that concern by establishing a new center for tobacco regulation within the F.D.A. It would be financed by tobacco industry fees projected at more than $5 billion over the next 10 years," reports the New York Times. To complement the ads, Reynolds launched www.fdaconcerns.org, through which people can contact their Congresspeople to voice their opposition to the proposal. As CMD previously reported, Reynolds competitor Philip Morris has come out in favor of FDA oversight. There's a good reason: "Analysts contend that the bill could benefit Philip Morris over its smaller competitors. By imposing tighter restrictions on advertising, the new regulations could make it harder for Reynolds to market Camel -- No. 3 in the United States market -- against the industry's top seller, Marlboro, which is made by Philip Morris."

The lead author of the largest lung cancer screening study ever performed has come under fire for accepting cigarette company funding for the study. Dr. Claudia Henschke, chief of the Chest Imaging Division at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, stunned the lung cancer research community by concluding that 80 percent of lung cancer deaths could be prevented by the widespread use of computerized tomography (CT) scans. Small print at the end of the New England Journal of Medicine article describing the study results noted only that the study had been partly financed by the Foundation for Lung Cancer: Early Detection, Prevention and Treatment. However, the foundation was underwritten almost entirely by the Vector Group, the parent company of the Liggett Group, Inc., manufacturer of Eve, Liggett Select, Grand Prix, Quest and Pyramid brand cigarettes. Researchers and universities are increasingly creating foundations and institutes as a way to shield information about their funders from the public, publishers and the press, reports the New York Times.

The MGM Mirage: How green is it?MGM Mirage's new $8 billion CityCenter project is a massive 75 acre, 4,000-room hotel-casino complex with condos and retail space currently under construction in Las Vegas. Its builders are promoting the complex as a model of green construction, and are seeking LEED certification for the project from the U.S. Green Building Council. The Council awards varying levels of the coveted LEED (for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design") certification. Certification of CityCenter would make the complex eligible for millions of dollars in tax breaks. The only problem is that MGM plans to allow smoking in the casino, and LEED certification signifies that the building is a healthy place to live and work. During a presentation about the complex at a Hotel Developers Conference last week, Stephanie Steinberg of Smoke-free Gaming of Colorado pointed out the hypocrisy of CityCenter being held up as a paragon of green building when one of its buildings won't even qualify. MGM Mirage responded by saying the casino portion of the complex would be exempt from the certification.