Playing hide‐and‐seek with the tobacco industry

LeGresley, Eric; Muggli, Monique E.; Hurt, R. Douglas

doi:10.1080/14622200412331328529

Cited by 36 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Resource limitations kept us from reviewing older microfiche and other offline sources. Finally, uncovering more recent industry strategies targeting low SES women within the documentary archive was difficult, as companies have made information less accessible over time 91. However, there is evidence that many tactics targeting low SES women continued after 2007, and in 2011, almost $7 billion—84% of total marketing expenditures in the USA—was spent on price discounting 92…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tobacco industry marketing to low socioeconomic status women in the USA

Brown‐Johnson¹,

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives Describe tobacco companies’ marketing strategies targeting low socioeconomic-status (SES) females in the US. Methods Analysis of previously secret tobacco industry documents. Results Tobacco companies focused marketing on low SES women starting in the late 1970s, including military wives, low-income inner-city minority women, “discount-susceptible” older female smokers, and less-educated young white women. Strategies included distributing discount coupons with food stamps to reach the very poor, discount offers at point-of-sale and via direct mail to keep cigarette prices low, developing new brands for low SES females, and promoting luxury images to low SES African American women. More recently, companies integrated promotional strategies targeting low-income women into marketing plans for established brands. Conclusions Tobacco companies used numerous marketing strategies to reach low SES females in the US for at least four decades. Strategies to counteract marketing to low SES women could include: 1) counter-acting price discounts and direct mail coupons that reduce the price of tobacco products, 2) instituting restrictions on point-of-sale advertising and retail display, and 3) creating counter-advertising that builds resistance to psychosocial targeting of low SES women. To achieve health equity, tobacco control efforts are needed to counteract the influence of tobacco industry marketing to low-income women.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tobacco industry marketing to low socioeconomic status women in the USA

Brown‐Johnson¹,

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Only those documents produced in the Nordic area and sent to offices of the multinational companies were available 189 194 195. The number of messages in the documents sent from representatives of multinational companies to their contact persons in the Nordic countries is much higher than the number of messages sent from the Nordic contact persons to multinational companies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local Nordic tobacco interests collaborated with multinational companies to maintain a united front and undermine tobacco control policies

Hiilamo

Glantz

2011

Tob Control

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective To analyse how local tobacco companies in the Nordic countries, individually and through National Manufacturers’ Associations, cooperated with British American Tobacco and Philip Morris in denying the health hazards of smoking and undermining tobacco control. Methods Analysis of tobacco control policies in the Nordic countries and tobacco industry documents. Results Nordic countries were early adopters of tobacco control policies. The multinational tobacco companies recognised this fact and mobilised to oppose these policies, in part because of fear that they would set unfavourable precedents. Since at least 1972, the Nordic tobacco companies were well informed about and willing to participate in the multinational companies activities to obscure the health dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke and to oppose tobacco control policies. Cooperation between multinational companies, Nordic national manufacturer associations and local companies ensured a united front on smoking and health issues in the Nordic area that was consistent with the positions that the multinational companies were taking. This cooperation delayed smoke-free laws and undermined other tobacco control measures. Conclusions Local tobacco companies worked with multinational companies to undermine tobacco control in distant and small Nordic markets because of concern that pioneering policies initiated in Nordic countries would spread to bigger market areas. Claims by the local Nordic companies that they were not actively involved with the multinationals are not supported by the facts. These results also demonstrate that the industry appreciates the global importance of both positive and negative public health precedents in tobacco control.

show abstract

“…Following opening of the depository to the public in 1999, BAT initially made the log available to visitors, as obligated under the Minnesota settlement. ii As the BAT claims were not subject to independent verification, visitors were concerned about the potential for abuse 5. Given the difficulties for accessing the documents,3–5 the authors and others began to systematically request copies of the full set of depository materials via the Guildford Archiving Project and put these online 20.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of British American Tobacco's questionable use of privilege and protected document claims at the Guildford Depository

LeGresley

Lee

2016

Tob Control

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundTobacco companies have a documented history of attempting to hide information from public scrutiny, including inappropriate privilege claims. The 1998 Minnesota Consent Judgement created two depositories to provide public access to discovered documents. Users raised concerns about the access conditions and ongoing integrity of the Guildford Depository collection operated until 2015 by British American Tobacco (BAT).MethodsA metadata search of the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library identified inconsistent privilege claims, and duplicates of documents withheld by BAT from public visitors. A review of the validity of claims, for documents obtained through these searches, was conducted against recognised legal definitions of privilege.FindingsBAT has asserted inappropriate privilege claims over 49% of the documents reviewed (n=63). The quantity of such claims and consistency of the stated rationale for the privilege claims suggest a concerted effort rather than human error.ConclusionsThere was insufficient attention given to the operation of the Guildford Depository by the original plaintiffs, including to the subsequent use of privilege claims. Appropriate access to these documents, commensurate with the terms of legal settlements creating the collection, was critical given their public interest value for enhancing understanding of industry strategies and activities, informing of policy interventions, and for holding the industry to account. Future legal settlements should prevent defendants from subsequently withholding disclosed documents, aside from those legitimately privileged, from public view. Control of publicly disclosed documents should not be placed back into the hands of defendant tobacco companies. Plaintiffs also need to invest adequate resources into policing claims of legal privilege.

show abstract

Playing hide‐and‐seek with the tobacco industry

Cited by 36 publications

References 21 publications

Tobacco industry marketing to low socioeconomic status women in the USA

Tobacco industry marketing to low socioeconomic status women in the USA

Local Nordic tobacco interests collaborated with multinational companies to maintain a united front and undermine tobacco control policies

Analysis of British American Tobacco's questionable use of privilege and protected document claims at the Guildford Depository

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About