[Intl-tobacco] U.S.: TFK Statement on Tobacco Companies' "International Marketing Standards" (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACTS: Joel Spivak/Michael Berman
August 14, 2001
tel. 202-296-5469

Statement of Matthew L. Myers, President
CAMPAIGN FOR TOBACCO-FREE KIDS

Tobacco Companies=92 =93International Marketing Standards=94 Represent Anot=
her
Cynical Effort to Avoid Real Change

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 14, 2001) =96 Advertising Age and several other
media outlets are reporting that Philip Morris, British American Tobacco
and Japan Tobacco are working to develop standard guidelines for how they
market their products around the world.  The reported standards are a
shameless sham. They are pathetically weak and represent another cynical
effort by the tobacco industry to present ineffective alternatives when
faced with the threat of real change through government regulation of its
deadly products. Even if adopted, this proposal would not result in any
real change in tobacco advertising.

The public should not be fooled.  The tobacco industry has long had a
voluntary advertising code that had no teeth and no impact.  This one is
no different.  Like other industry-backed proposals, these standards are
designed to create the illusion of change, while allowing the industry to
continue with business as usual.

The marketing standards being discussed do not deserve to be taken
seriously and are especially inadequate in comparison to the total ban on
tobacco advertising and marketing being proposed by many nations.  They
even fall short of the weak voluntary restrictions that tobacco companies
have been willing to accept in the United States and other countries.
For example, the tobacco companies propose to cease advertising in
publications with greater than 25 percent youth readership, when in fact
several companies have already stopped advertising in U.S. publications
with greater than 15 percent youth readership.  The restrictions on
outdoor advertising fall far short of what is required in the United
States, and the provisions governing television advertising represent a
stunning reversal of the long accepted prohibition of all television
tobacco advertising.  Furthermore, these standards would not affect some
of the largest categories of industry marketing, such as promotional
allowances for shelf space and product placement, discounts, giveaways and
point-of-purchase advertising.

History also tells us that the tobacco industry cannot be trusted when it
says it will stop marketing to kids.  The most recent example is the
November 1998 state tobacco settlement in which the U.S. tobacco companies
promised not to =93take any action, directly or indirectly, to target youth
=85 in the advertising, promotion or marketing of tobacco products.=94 Rath=
er
than reducing their marketing expenditures, the tobacco companies just one
year later spent a record $8.24 billion to market their deadly products,
an increase of 22.3 percent, according to the U.S. Federal Trade
Commission. Studies have shown that much of this increase was in venues
effective at reaching kids, including youth-oriented magazines and
convenience stores frequented by youth.

It is no coincidence that the industry=92s latest public relations initiati=
ve
is being launched as the world=92s nations negotiate the first internationa=
l
tobacco treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and a growing
number of countries around the world take action to regulate the
manufacture, marketing and sale of tobacco products.  These regulatory
efforts, if strong, comprehensive and aggressively implemented, offer real
hope of reducing the global toll of tobacco-caused death and disease.
Already, four million people a year die from tobacco worldwide, and unless
effective action is taken, that death rate will rise to 10 million a year b=
y
2020.  The tobacco industry=92s latest PR effort is aimed at blocking the
effective action we need.

In fact, the tobacco industry=92s so-called marketing standards are cut fro=
m
the same strategic cloth as Philip Morris=92 recent report in the Czech
Republic touting the =93positive effects=94 of early smoking deaths for
government budgets.  These efforts are part of a consistent industry
strategy to say and do whatever it takes to head off real change.

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