[Intl-tobacco] Release: Tobacco Giant Philip Morris' New Name Can't Hide its Global Shame!

[Robert Weissman]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 25, 2002

Contact:   Anna White, Essential Action  (cell: +1 651-492-5551)
               Robert Weissman, Essential Action (tel: +1 202-387-8030)
               Fax: +1 202-234-5176, Email: rob@essential.org


Tobacco Giant Philip Morris’ New Name Can’t Hide its Global Shame!

Dozens of U.S. Activists to Expose Company’s Global Trail of Death,
Disease, and Deceit
at Company’s Annual Shareholders Meeting in Richmond, Virginia

Washington, DC –  In a futile attempt to escape its infamous reputation
as a global “Merchant of Death,” the world’s largest tobacco company,
Philip Morris, will officially change its name to “Altria” at its annual
shareholders meeting in Richmond, Virginia on April 25.

Over twenty-five tobacco control activists involved with Essential
Action’s Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control (GPTC) program, will be
present to send a strong message to the company that, until it puts
people before profits, no name change will be able to alleviate the
company’s massive global public relations problem.  GPTC matches U.S.
tobacco control groups with counterparts around the world.

GPTC groups from Minnesota, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Maryland, and the
District of Columbia, along with other U.S. activists, will hold a
demonstration outside the shareholders’ meeting to denounce Philip
Morris’ egregious practices around the world.

Some of the company’s serious transgressions in the last year include:
issuing a report in the Czech Republic which concluded that smoking is
good for the economy because smokers die earlier, thus saving the
government money on pensions, healthcare, and housing; featuring a
pregnant woman on a billboard advertisement for L & M cigarettes
(Ukraine); and sponsoring a promotional concert in Niger that attracted
thousands of teenagers and at which free cigarettes were distributed to
youth as young as 10. In the last year, evidence of the company’s
involvement in cigarette smuggling around the world has also been
introduced in court and reported on by the media.

Inside the meeting, Eva Kralikova of the Czech Republic, well-known for
exposing Philip Morris’ now infamous "Czech" report, will demand Philip
Morris take responsibility for its misdeeds outside of the U.S.  Several
other GPTC participants plan to present statements on behalf of their
global partners in Sri Lanka, Niger, Romania, and India.

The April 25 meeting is also significant, because Louis Camilleri will
officially replace Geoffrey Bible as president and chief executive
officer.  In the 1990’s, Camilleri led the aggressive expansion of
Philip Morris’ tobacco business in Central and Eastern Europe.

This year also marks Philip Morris' 100th anniversary.  During the past
century, tobacco killed 100 million people around the world.  If the
global tobacco industry is not reigned in, it will kill a mind-boggling
1 billion people this century. By 2030, the World Health Organization
projects that tobacco will kill 10 million people annually. This is
equivalent to 70 planes crashing each and every day of the year.

“Philip Morris’ deliberate and aggressive promotion of its highly
addictive, lethal products is nothing less than a global massacre, on a
scale that humankind has never before experienced,” says Anna White,
Coordinator of GPTC, “A new name cannot wash the company of the blood
that stains its reputation and profits.”

U.S. GPTC groups consider their presence at the shareholders meeting an
act of solidarity with their colleagues abroad, many of whom are based
in low-income countries with few or no financial resources to counter
wealthy, powerful multinational tobacco corporations' sophisticated
marketing campaigns and rampant abuse of political influence.

Adriana Menéndez, an MD with the Sindicato Médico of Uruguay sums up the
sentiments of many in low-income countries, “We denounce Philip Morris
attempt to clean its name – a name stained with the blood and tears of
its victims and their relatives – with a name change.  A new name does
nothing to diminish the load of immorality, corruption, perversion and
lies upon which the company has constructed its global economic
empire.”  (For more quotes from around the world see
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/qofm/0204/altria.html )

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