[Intl-tobacco] Victory! Warner Nu Metro donates $$$ to Nigerian tobacco control efforts

[Robert Weissman]

Dear Friends,

As you may recall, in March of this year we launched a fax campaign
targeting Warner Bros, in response to British American Tobacco's use of
five Warner Bros films to promote its Rothmans cigarette brand in
Nigeria. We called upon Warner Bros CEO Barry M. Meyer to disclose
further information about its South African distributor's contract with
BAT, take concrete measures to ensure that something like this does not
happen again, and donate any money it received from BAT to Nigerian
tobacco control groups.  Read more about the BAT promotion and our
campaign: http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/letter/ng0303/

The very same day that the fax campaign was launched, Warner Bros'
Senior VP of Corporate Communications called Essential Action and gave
us an earful! Despite the company's vehement complaints, we informed
them that we would not stop the campaign until our requests were met.
Warner Bros later informed Essential Action that an employee of its
South African distributor, Warner Nu Metro, had been fired over the
matter, and that 50% of the money Warner Nu Metro had received from BAT
would be donated to a Nigerian tobacco control group. On November 7,
2003, after much waiting, the money ($5000) was finally received and
split among the three Nigerian tobacco control groups that were actively
involved with the campaign.

While $5000 is a drop in the bucket for a company like Warner Bros, it
represents a significant increase in funding for our colleagues in
Nigeria*, who have pledged to use it to: 1) strengthen the anti-tobacco
network in Nigeria. 2) support advocacy campaigns specific to each
organization.

Perhaps more importantly, we trust that Warner Bros will not let
something like this happen again, particularly with the company under
fire in the U.S. for failing to address the problem of smoking in movies
(in 2002, 59% of the company's kid-rated films contained smoking).

* To put the $5000 in perspective, the annual per capita GDP of Nigeria:
$896 (UNDP 2000)

EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF SUCCESSFUL CROSS-BORDER COLLABORATION

It was Journalists Action on Tobacco & Health that first alerted
Essential Action to BAT's promotional campaign featuring Hollywood
films.  The Nigerian group was subsequently matched with Reality Check,
New York's statewide youth empowerment program, which was in the middle
of a year-long smokefree movies campaign. Reality Check provided JATH
with a small grant to cover additional reporting of the BAT promotions.
The information gathered by JATH served as the basis for communications
with Warner Bros, press coverage in the Los Angeles Times, and the fax
campaign that followed. Reality Check incorporated the fax campaign into
its smokefree movie project, featuring it as an international example of
the tobacco industry's use of film to promote cigarettes.

In August, representatives of Reality Check and JATH had the opportunity
to meet face-to-face in Helsinki at the 12th World Conference on Tobacco
or Health. Check out a photo of Ken Dahlgren (RC) and Adeola Akinremi
(JATH) posing in front of a poster detailing their joint campaign:
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/photos/wctoh2003/kenadeola.jpg

In short, an excellent example of a cross-border collaboration that is
both egalitarian and mutually beneficial (two of the things we encourage
global partners to strive for)!

THANKS!

On behalf of our Nigerian colleagues, thanks to all of you who
participated in fax campaign targeting Warner Bros. As Adeola Akinremi
(JATH) put it, "Working Together Means Winning Together!"

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Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control
Essential Action
P.O. Box 19405
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: +1 202-387-8030
Fax: +1 202-234-5176
Email: tobacco@essential.org
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco