Latest PM promises re overseas marketing (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Richmond Times Dispatch
Philip Morris to revamp ad practices /
Chairman wants emphasis on not marketing to youth 
Wednesday, June 3, 1998
BY CHIP JONES
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer 

Philip Morris Cos. Inc. will revamp its advertising and marketing 
practices to try to show the company does not market to children, the 
company's chairman told employees last week. 

"We will align our marketing and selling practices here in the USA and 
overseas so that we cannot be accused of marketing cigarettes to youth,"

Geoffrey C. Bible, chairman of the nation's largest tobacco company,
told 
employees in New York.  Pledging to put the youth-marketing issue
"behind 
us once and for all," Bible said he recently appointed a senior
executive 
to "design more actions" to back up the company's long-held claim that
it 
does not try to appeal to youngsters. 

Removing billboards touting Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Merit and other 
Philip Morris brands could be a good place to start, he said in response

to an employee's question.  "I don't think billboards cause young people

to smoke cigarettes at all," Bible said. "But if you were to do it, the 
perception would be we were taking some effective action."  But company 
officials vehemently denied yesterday that Philip Morris is planning to 
mothball the Marlboro Man. 

"We are absolutely not considering taking down billboards," said Ellen 
Merlo, senior vice president for corporate affairs.   Bible's remarks, 
she said, came in response to questions about what the company might do 
to counter crit- Sinicism. "It was like a hypothetical," Merlo said. "It

was not a commitment to even consider taking down billboards, except in 
the four states where we made a commitment."  As part of 
multibillion-dollar settlements reached during the
past year, Philip Morris and other tobacco companies have agreed to 
remove outdoor advertising in Mississippi, Florida, Texas and Minnesota.

Those settlements were based on last June's $368.5 billion national 
agreement with 40 state attorneys general that included a billboard ban 
along with other voluntary restrictions on cigarette advertising. 

Bible spoke Thursday at an afternoon forum with employees that was 
broadcast on the company's closed-circuit television network to other 
locations, including Philip Morris USA's Manufacturing Center in 
Richmond.  A company employee gave The Times-Dispatch a complete account

of the forum.  Philip Morris' new public relations effort will be led by

Carolyn Levy, a veteran Philip Morris marketing executive who recently 
was named to the new post of senior vice president of youth smoking 
prevention. 

Philip Morris has been subject to years of criticism in Congress that,
as 
the No. 1 cigarette-maker, its billboard, magazine and point-of-sale ads

promote sales to youths.  Those charges have been buttressed by federal 
and academic studies showing that Marlboro, the most heavily advertised 
brand, constitutes nearly 60 percent of the youth market, while
appealing 
to less than 40 percent of the adult market. 

Bible, in his remarks to employees, maintained the company's innocence
on 
the youth-marketing charge. But he conceded that most Americans don't 
believe him or other tobacco leaders.  "We no longer have credibility in

the eyes of the world," Bible said. "We don't like that, but that is a 
fact.''  Given that credibility gap, he said, "what will make an impact?

Actions."  Bible said the company is studying "very sensible, practical,

effective things," but did not provide details. 

He did say, however, that he intends to take voluntary actions overseas,

where Philip Morris had 1997 cigarette sales of $26.3 billion, or nearly

double its domestic cigarette business. "In our overseas markets we are 
going to eliminate the more obvious elements our marketing people point 
to," and get the entire tobacco industry "to do the same thing," Bible 
said, without explaining what elements those might be.  If other 
companies don't agree to voluntary compliance, he added, "We'll go to
the 
[foreign] government and say we're prepared to do it, but we can't go it

alone." 

Bible also said he would like his American competitors to take voluntary

actions against youth marketing.   But without a comprehensive law
passed 
by Congress, he said, getting a united front by the tobacco companies is

"quite difficult to do because of antitrust reasons."  Sounding at times

combative, and at other times philosophical, the silver-haired executive

blamed President Clinton for failing to support the initial $368.5 
billion national settlement. 

"This is not about youth smoking," he said of pending legislation. "It's

all about big taxes for big government and big spending and politics."  
Despite the company's denial yesterday, several analysts said it would 
make sense for Philip Morris to lead the industry in a voluntary 
billboard ban.  "I still think it's smart politics and public relations 
on their part," said Washington investment analyst Ethan Siegal. 
"Anything the industry does of a voluntary nature to back up statements 
they don't target kids is a positive." 

New York tobacco analyst Gary Black said Philip Morris has "given up all

hope there will be some comprehensive resolution."  "They're now onto 
Plan B: to work with all 50 states," said
Black, who follows the tobacco industry for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
"I 
think there's a realization that should have been the way they did it in

the first place."  Bible said the company would continue to work to 
defeat the current bill before the Senate, and would fight lawsuits in 
about three dozen more states. "We will line up our defenses to fight
the 
various litigations, or settle them as we may deem appropriate," he told

employees.

He sounded resigned to a long fight ahead. 

"We've all learned that life is not easy," he concluded. "It was 
designed, in my opinion, to be one long, challenging learning curve 
loaded with unexpected events, and not all of them are
good."