Promoting Tobacco Use Among Students: The U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company College Marketing Program.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: From the 1970s-1990s the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company (USST) conducted aggressive campaigns to solicit college students to buy their smokeless tobacco (ST) products. The scope, scale, methods, and impact of this youth marketing campaign have yet to be analyzed in the academic literature. STUDY DESIGN: Historical research study. METHODS: Internal industry documents describing the USST campaigns were obtained via the University of California, San Francisco's repository of tobacco company records. Marketing materials were obtained from Stanford University's Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising (SRITA) collection of 657 USST advertisements. RESULTS: USST's College Marketing Program (1978-mid 1980s) sponsored events in some 350 campuses and hired student representatives in at least 175 colleges and universities across America. College representatives were trained to provide free samples to fellow students. Over a typical school year approximately a quarter million Happy Days, Skoal, and Skoal Bandits samples were handed out to undergraduates. USST paid their student representatives well and offered them a variety of incentives based upon sales growth. During the 1990s, USST's Skoal Music program engaged students on campuses and at "spring break" venues such as Daytona Beach. CONCLUSIONS: Targeting of college students on campus was a common tobacco industry practice between the 1940s and early 1960s. From the 1970s through 1990s USST resurrected the method and pursued it with vigor including: distribution of free samples; sponsored events and concerts, branded intramural teams; visits by sports celebrities; logo wearables and merchandise; contests and incentives; and displays and promotions in stores on and surrounding campuses. Laryngoscope, 131:E1860-E1872, 2021.

Tobacco industry and public health responses to state and local efforts to end tobacco sales from 1969-2020.

BACKGROUND: In June 2019, Beverly Hills, California, became the first American city in the 21st century to pass an ordinance ending the sale of most tobacco products, including cigarettes, and it is unlikely to be the last. Knowledge of previous efforts to ban tobacco sales in the US, both successful and unsuccessful, may help inform tobacco control advocates' approach to future efforts. METHODS: We retrieved and analyzed archival tobacco industry documents. We confirmed and supplemented information from the documents with news media coverage and publicly available state and local government materials, such as meeting minutes and staff reports, related to proposed bans. RESULTS: We found 22 proposals to end the sale of cigarettes or tobacco products from 1969-2020 in the US. Proposals came from five states, twelve cities or towns, and one county. Most came from elected officials or boards of health, and were justified on public health grounds. In opposing tobacco sales bans, the tobacco industry employed no tactics or arguments that it did not also employ in campaigns against other tobacco control measures. Public health groups typically opposed sales ban proposals on the grounds that they were not evidence-based. This changed with Beverly Hills' 2019 proposal, with public health organizations supporting this and other California city proposals because of their likely positive health impacts. This support did not always translate into passage of local ordinances, as some city council members expressed reservations about the impact on small businesses. CONCLUSION: Tobacco control advocates are likely to encounter familiar tobacco industry tactics and arguments against tobacco sales ban proposals, and can rely on past experience and the results of a growing body of retail-related research to counter them. Considering how to overcome concerns about harming retailers will likely be vital if other jurisdictions are to succeed in ending tobacco sales.

Transferring Racial/Ethnic Marketing Strategies From Tobacco to Food Corporations: Philip Morris and Kraft General Foods.

Objectives. To investigate the transfer of marketing knowledge and infrastructure for targeting racial/ethnic minorities from the tobacco to the food and beverage industry in the United States.Methods. We analyzed internal industry documents between April 2018 and April 2019 from the University of California San Francisco Truth Tobacco Industry Documents Library, triangulated with other sources.Results. In the 1980s, Philip Morris Companies purchased General Foods and Kraft Foods and created Kraft General Foods. Through centralized marketing initiatives, Philip Morris Companies directly transferred expertise, personnel, and resources from its tobacco to its food subsidiaries, creating a racial/ethnic minority-targeted food and beverage marketing program modeled on its successful cigarette program. When Philip Morris Companies sold Kraft General Foods in 2007, Kraft General Foods had a "fully integrated" minority marketing program that combined target marketing with racial/ethnic events promotion, racial/ethnic media outreach, and corporate donations to racial/ethnic leadership groups, making it a food industry leader.Conclusions. The tobacco industry directly transferred racial/ethnic minority marketing knowledge and infrastructure to food and beverage companies. Given the substantial growth of food and beverage corporations, their targeting of vulnerable populations, and obesity-related disparities, public policy and community action is needed to address corporate target marketing.

Signs, things and packaging: Recovering the material agency of the cigarette packet.

In recent years, cigarette packets have become the site of considerable legislative attention, via initiatives to remove industry branding from tobacco products. These efforts are based on the premise that branded cigarette packaging acts as a 'silent salesman' for smoking. According to this perspective, the cigarette packet has a particular sort of agency, but one rooted in its communicative powers rather than its material qualities. In this article, I reconsider this view, based on an analysis of archives in the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents Library produced by a search of the term 'packet design', and scholarship on containerization. Taking up the idea of containers as undertheorized forms of materiality, I argue that the cigarette packet is best conceptualized as a technology with powerful, albeit largely invisible, physical consequences on the circulation of cigarettes and the practice of smoking itself.

Tobacco control in Nepal during a time of government turmoil (1960-2006).

BACKGROUND: Nepal was a monarchy, then a dictatorship, then a democracy. This paper reviews how tobacco control progressed in Nepal in the context of these changes in government from 1950 through 2006. METHODS: We triangulated tobacco industry documents, newspaper articles and key informant interviews. RESULTS: Until 1983, the tobacco industry was mostly state owned. Transnational tobacco companies entered the Nepalese market through ventures with Surya Tobacco Company Private Limited (with Imperial Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco) in 1983 and Seti Cigarette Factory Limited (with Philip Morris International [PMI]) in 1985. Seminars and conferences on tobacco, celebrations of World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) and efforts by WHO helped promote tobacco control in Nepal beginning in the 1970s. Tobacco advocates in Nepal pushed the government to issue executive orders banning smoking in public places in 1992 and tobacco advertising in electronic media in 1998, and to introduce a tobacco health tax in 1993. The tobacco industry lobbied against these measures and succeeded in keeping the tobacco tax low by challenging it in court. Tobacco advocates sued the government in 2003 and 2005, resulting in a June 2006 Supreme Court decision upholding the smoking and advertising bans and requiring the government to enact a comprehensive tobacco control law. CONCLUSIONS: Political instability, conflict, weak governance and the dictatorship significantly affect tobacco control activities in low-income and middle-income countries. Nepal shows that tobacco control advocates can take advantage of global events, such as WNTD, and use domestic litigation to maintain support from civil societies and to advocate for stronger tobacco control policies.

Exploiting the "video game craze": A case study of the tobacco industry's use of video games as a marketing tool.

BACKGROUND: Video games have grown in popularity since the 1970s, and tobacco imagery is present in a substantial subset of games, including those oriented to youth. Much like exposure to tobacco content in films, exposure to tobacco content in video games may influence smoking uptake and use; however, the tobacco industry's role in facilitating or promoting the use of tobacco imagery in video games is unclear. We explored the industry's interest in and use of video games to market their products to youth and young adults. METHODS: We retrieved and analyzed archival tobacco industry documents. We supplemented information from the documents with current and archived versions of several brand and corporate websites and one website containing user-supplied information on video games. RESULTS: Tobacco companies recognized the youth appeal and marketing potential of video games as early as 1980. Initial marketing ideas included incorporating video game themes into product packaging and design. More fully realized plans focused on incorporating video games into product promotions in bars, as a high visibility way to attract younger patrons and increase long-term marketing opportunities by generating names for tobacco company direct-marketing databases. Tobacco companies also incorporated video games into in-home product promotions, primarily as components of brand websites, in order to enhance brand image and generate repeat website traffic. A similar desire to attract and keep visitors led to discussions about the inclusion of video games on corporate youth smoking prevention websites, although only one company, Lorillard, followed through. CONCLUSIONS: Video game players are an attractive target market for tobacco companies. Video games, as used by these companies, facilitate consumer engagement with particular tobacco brands or particular corporate messages. Eliminating the use of video games as a promotional vehicle may require limiting tobacco marketing in both physical and online environments.

Imitating waterpipe: Another tobacco industry attempt to create a cigarette that seems safer.

INTRODUCTION: The use of waterpipe (also known as hookah) increased between 2011 and 2016 in the US and globally, especially among youth and young adults. The aim of this study is to examine the tobacco industry's interest, involvement and role in proliferating waterpipe-like products and its technology. METHODS: We searched the University of California San Francisco Truth Tobacco Industry Documents beginning with the search terms "hookah', 'waterpipe', 'narghile', 'shisha', 'hooka', 'e-hookah', 'electronic hookah', 'water filtration', and 'hubble-bubble' and then expanded the search using snowball sampling. Over 1500 documents were reviewed, and 39 were included in this analysis. RESULTS: This review focuses on several companies' addition of water to the filter of one cigarette holder and to two cigarettes in an attempt to make these products seem safer. In 1954, the Aquafilter Corporation created and patented a filtered cigarette holder named Aquafilter, which the documents reveal was closely monitored by multiple tobacco companies. In 1965, the American Tobacco Company developed the Waterford cigarette. In 1987, Japan Tobacco patented the Rivage cigarette. Waterford and Rivage were very similar products that contained crushable water capsules designed to "wet" the cigarettes' filter. CONCLUSION: Companies have been attempting to incorporate the water filtrating aspect of waterpipe into cigarette products. Ultimately, several tobacco companies adapted the technology from these devices to create cigarettes with crushable flavor capsules. Given the tobacco industry's history of resurrecting products, the industry may attempt to incorporate water filtration and other aspects of waterpipe into future products to attempt to make them appear safer.

The "Canone Inverso": when tobacco was not so bad. A Look Back at the Primordial Debate on the tobacco effects in the Occupational Medicine.

AIM: The article provides an overview on the beginning and evolutions of medical observations on tobacco induced diseases between Eighteenth and Nineteenth century. METHODS: By searching for historical medical literature, first studies on tobacco-induced diseases focused on production risks rather than on adverse effects that the use of tobacco has for the human health. RESULTS: The approach induced first eighteenth-century authors to define this substance as a non-pathogenic and, consequently, not to consider tobacco factories dangerous for health workers. In those years, tobacco was employed in therapy as a stimulant treatment and it was considered harmless and even healthy and preventive of several acute diseases. CONCLUSIONS: Authors will show that studies on pathogenic effects of smoking will only start around late nineteenth century, when the idea of the healthiness of tobacco industry was already supported.

Public versus internal conceptions of addiction: An analysis of internal Philip Morris documents.

BACKGROUND: Tobacco addiction is a complex, multicomponent phenomenon stemming from nicotine's pharmacology and the user's biology, psychology, sociology, and environment. After decades of public denial, the tobacco industry now agrees with public health authorities that nicotine is addictive. In 2000, Philip Morris became the first major tobacco company to admit nicotine's addictiveness. Evolving definitions of addiction have historically affected subsequent policymaking. This article examines how Philip Morris internally conceptualized addiction immediately before and after this announcement. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We analyzed previously secret, internal Philip Morris documents made available as a result of litigation against the tobacco industry. We compared these documents to public company statements and found that Philip Morris's move from public denial to public affirmation of nicotine's addictiveness coincided with pressure on the industry from poor public approval ratings, the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), the United States government's filing of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) suit, and the Institute of Medicine's (IoM's) endorsement of potentially reduced risk products. Philip Morris continued to research the causes of addiction through the 2000s in order to create successful potentially reduced exposure products (PREPs). While Philip Morris's public statements reinforce the idea that nicotine's pharmacology principally drives smoking addiction, company scientists framed addiction as the result of interconnected biological, social, psychological, and environmental determinants, with nicotine as but one component. Due to the fragmentary nature of the industry document database, we may have missed relevant information that could have affected our analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Philip Morris's research suggests that tobacco industry activity influences addiction treatment outcomes. Beyond nicotine's pharmacology, the industry's continued aggressive advertising, lobbying, and litigation against effective tobacco control policies promotes various nonpharmacological determinants of addiction. To help tobacco users quit, policy makers should increase attention on the social and environmental dimensions of addiction alongside traditional cessation efforts.

[Understand the tobacco industry's strategy for recruiting teens: Lessons from a 1973 marketing document]. / Comprendre la stratégie de l'industrie du tabac pour recruter les adolescents : leçons actuelles d'un document marketing de 1973.

For years, the tobacco industry has organized the inoculation of tobacco addiction to adolescents. METHOD: The analysis of a 1973 RJReynols® document identified ten physical and psychological factors in order to increase the number of young users for a brand of cigarettes. These young people are classified into three groups: pre-smokers, learners and smokers. RESULT: The taste for pre-smokers and learners and nicotine for smokers are main physical parameters. The industry clearly knows that tobacco is mainly consumed because of nicotine addiction, so it is necessary to make adolescents addict. It is interesting to note that cigarette pack was in 1973 a positive factor to attract young smokers, whereas now with the arrival of the neutral packaging, the tobacco industry declares that packaging has no influence to attract teenagers ! Of the psychological factors, the only negative factor is the self-image of the smoker. The tobacco industry already recognized in 1973 that smokers were unhappy about smoking. For learners, self-image and the experience of adults are most important factor, which is why the industry strives to create a positive image and convey message that smoking initiation is a ritual to become adult. According to the tobacco industry, stress and alleviation of boredom are also important points in turning pre-smokers into learners and learners into smokers. CONCLUSION: This article aims to provide practical tools for understanding industry initiatives targeting adolescents. The attached tool can be used by the teens or adults involved to understand the optimization of teenagers tobacco marketing.

[History of Brazil's tobacco control policy from 1986 to 2016]. / Trajetória da política de controle do tabaco no Brasil de 1986 a 2016.

This study analyzes Brazil's tobacco control policy from 1986 to 2016, seeking to describe the policy's history and discuss its achievements, limits, and challenges. The study adopted a political economics approach and contributions from public policy analysis. Data were based on a search of the literature, documents, and secondary sources and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in the policy. Factors related to the domestic and international contexts, the political process, and the policy's content influenced the institutional characteristics of tobacco control in the country. The study emphasizes the consolidation of Brazil's social rejection of smoking, government structuring of the policy, action by civil society, and Brazil's prestige in the international scenario. Inter-sector tobacco control measures like price and tax increases on cigarettes, the promotion of smoke-free environments, and the enforcement of health warnings contributed to the important reduction in prevalence of smoking. Implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Brazil, beginning in 2006, contributed to the expansion and consolidation of the national policy. However, tobacco-related economic interests limited the implementation of some strategic measures. The challenges feature the medium- and long-term sustainability of tobacco control and the solution to barriers involving crop diversification on current tobacco-growing areas, the fight against the illegal cigarette trade, and interference in the policy by the tobacco industry.

O estudo analisa a política brasileira de controle do tabaco entre 1986 e 2016, buscando caracterizar a trajetória da política e discutir os seus avanços, limites e desafios. Adotaram-se a perspectiva da economia política e contribuições do referencial de análise de políticas públicas. Realizou-se análise bibliográfica, documental, de dados secundários e de entrevistas semiestruturadas com atores envolvidos na política. Fatores relacionados ao contexto nacional e internacional, ao processo político e ao conteúdo da política influenciaram a institucionalidade do controle do tabaco no país. Ressaltam-se a consolidação da rejeição social ao tabagismo, a estruturação governamental da política, a atuação da sociedade civil e o prestígio do Brasil no cenário internacional. Medidas intersetoriais de controle do tabaco, como o aumento de preços e impostos de cigarros, a promoção de ambientes livres do fumo e a adoção de advertências sobre os malefícios do tabagismo contribuíram para a expressiva redução da prevalência de fumantes no período. A implementação da Convenção-Quadro para Controle do Tabaco da Organização Mundial da Saúde no Brasil, a partir de 2006, contribuiu para a expansão e consolidação da política nacional. No entanto, interesses econômicos relacionados ao tabaco limitaram a implementação de algumas ações estratégicas. Entre os desafios, destacam-se a sustentabilidade do controle do tabaco a médio e longo prazos e a superação das barreiras relacionadas à diversificação em áreas plantadas de fumo, ao combate ao comércio ilícito de cigarros e à interferência da indústria do fumo na política.

El estudio analiza la política brasileña de control al tabaco entre 1986 y 2016, procurando determinar la trayectoria de la política en este sentido, además de discutir sus avances, límites y desafíos. Se adoptaron la perspectiva de la economía política y contribuciones dentro del marco referencial del análisis a las políticas públicas. Se realizó un análisis bibliográfico, documental, de datos secundarios y de entrevistas semiestructuradas con actores involucrados en la política. Los factores relacionados con el contexto nacional e internacional, proceso político y contenido de la política influenciaron la institucionalidad del control al tabaco en el país. Se resaltan la consolidación del rechazo social al tabaquismo, la estructuración gubernamental de la política, la actuación de la sociedad civil y el prestigio de Brasil en el escenario internacional. Las medidas intersectoriales de control al tabaco, como el aumento de precios e impuestos de cigarrillos, la promoción de ambientes libres de tabaco y la adopción de advertencias sobre los perjuicios del tabaquismo contribuyeron a una expresiva reducción de la prevalencia de fumadores durante el período. La implementación de la Convención-Marco para el Control del Tabaco de la Organización Mundial de la Salud, en Brasil, a partir de 2006, contribuyó a la expansión y consolidación de la política nacional. No obstante, los intereses económicos, relacionados con el tabaco, limitaron la implementación de algunas acciones estratégicas. Entre los desafíos, se destacan la sostenibilidad del control al tabaco a medio y largo plazo y la superación de las barreras relacionadas con la diversificación en áreas plantadas con tabaco, el combate al comercio ilícito de cigarrillos y la interferencia de la industria del tabaco en la política.

'Addressed to you not as a smoker but as a doctor': doctor-targeted cigarette advertisements in JAMA.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: During the mid-20th century tobacco companies placed advertisements in medical journals to entice physicians to smoke their brand and, more importantly, to recommend it to their patients. They have been little studied, in part because advertising sections in medical journals are almost universally discarded before binding. This study aimed to define the themes and techniques used in doctor-targeted tobacco advertisements that appeared in American medical journals in the mid-20th century and determine the motivations and tactics of the tobacco industry in engaging the medical profession in this way. METHODS: Doctor-targeted tobacco advertisements from JAMA and the New York State Medical Journal appearing between 1936 and 1953 were studied. These were obtained from the New York Academy of Medicine and the UCSF Truth database of tobacco industry documents. Content analysis of advertising slogans and imagery was conducted. Using internal tobacco industry documents, we examined the relationship between tobacco advertisers and medical journals. RESULTS: Among the 519 doctor-targeted advertisements, 13 brands were represented, with two (Philip Morris and Camel) accounting for 84%. Correspondence between tobacco advertisers and medical journal editors reveals the potent influence of revenue to the sponsoring society and personal compensation derived from consulting arrangements. Content analysis of the advertisements revealed much flattery of doctors and arguments professing the harmlessness of the company's brand. CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of doctor-targeted tobacco advertisements in American medical journals from 1936 to 1953 suggest that tobacco companies targeted physicians as a potential sales force to assuage the public's fear of health risks and to recruit them as allies against negative publicity. Tobacco companies also appeared to try, through the substantial advertising revenue passed by journals to their parent medical societies, to temper any possible opposition by organized medicine.

Origins of tobacco harm reduction in the UK: the 'Product Modification Programme' (1972-1991).

OBJECTIVE: To better understand the current embrace of long-term nicotine maintenance by British governmental agencies and tobacco harm reduction by several leading British public health organisations, describe the context and deliberations of the UK's first formal tobacco risk reduction programme: 'Product Modification'. METHODS: Analysis of previously secret tobacco industry documents, news archives and Parliamentary debate records. RESULTS: From 1972 to 1991, the British government sought to investigate safer smoking through the 'product modification programme'. The Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health (ISCSH) advised the British government on these efforts and collaborated with the tobacco industry, with which government then negotiated to determine policy. The ISCSH operated from four industry-backed premises, which contributed to the ISCSH's support of safer smoking: (1) reduced toxicity indicates reduced risk; (2) collaboration with the tobacco industry will not undermine tobacco control; (3) nicotine addiction is unavoidable; (4) to curtail cigarette use, solutions must be consumer-approved (ie, profitable). These premises often undermined tobacco control efforts and placed the ISCSH at odds with broader currents in public health. The product modification programme was abandoned in 1991 as the European Community began requiring members to adopt upper tar limits, rendering the ISCSH redundant. POLICY IMPLICATIONS: Endorsements of reduced harm tobacco products share the same four premises that supported the product modification programme. Current tobacco harm reduction premises and policies supported by the British government and leading British public health organisations may reflect the historical influence of the tobacco industry.

Impact of tobacco industry and other corporations in the defeat of the 1994 Clinton health care plan.

BACKGROUND: The primary reason cited by many scholars for the defeat of the Clinton Administration's 1994 health care reform bill has long been identified as Health Insurance Association of America and National Federation of Independent Businesses opposition to the bill. Given this predominant consensus combined with sizeable proposed funding for the bill by a large tobacco product tax, this manuscript examined what the tobacco industry's role was in whole or part in defeating the Clinton health care bill. METHODS: This research occurred through crosschecking internal tobacco industry documents and Clinton White House documents. RESULTS: Prior to the passage of the bill, the tobacco industry accepted a compromise of 45 cents per pack increase phased in over five years. Due to this compromise, the industry or third party allies had no role in the ultimate defeat in the bill. CONCLUSIONS: The primary reason for the bill's ultimate defeat was general business (but not tobacco industry and third party ally) opposition, the bill running out of time, and conflicting bills. Secondary reasons for the bill's defeat included issues with: employer mandates, high taxes on insurance plans, impacts on medical research and education, Congressional attention to other issues, election year politics, and possible future excise tax possibilities.

[The Scientific Commission of the Swiss Cigarette Manufacturers Association : a historical overview]. / La Commission scientifique de l'Association suisse des fabricants de cigarettes : un aperçu historique.

The Scientific Commission (SC) of the Swiss Cigarette Manufacturers Association (SCMA) has been active between 1962 and the end of the 1990s. The commission fulfilled multiple tasks in the service of the tobacco industry : planning of external joint research, public relations work, lobbying, and collaboration with public authorities as well as organisations with a similar mission as the SC itself. In addition, it monitored research on smoking and health, reviewed studies that were detrimental to the cigarette manufacturers' interest and organized pro-tobacco scientific meetings. The commission was thus a powerful tool at the disposal of the tobacco industry. It also had a major impact on public health through perpetuating the pseudo-controversy about the negative effects of smoking on health.

La Commission scientifique (CS) de l'Association suisse des fabricants de cigarettes (ASFC) a été active entre 1962 et la fin des années 1990. Parmi les multiples tâches qui lui incombaient, elle planifiait la recherche collective de l'industrie du tabac, lui servait de porte-parole auprès des médias, exerçait du lobbying, et collaborait avec des institutions officielles ainsi que des organisations qui lui étaient apparentées. En outre, la CS suivait l'état de la recherche sur la question tabac et santé, critiquait les études défavorables aux cigarettiers et organisait des événements scientifiques de complaisance. Il ressort que cette commission a constitué un puissant outil au service de l'industrie du tabac et, qu'en entretenant une pseudo-controverse sur les effets nocifs du tabagisme, elle a eu un impact majeur sur la santé publique.