The role of corporate credibility in legitimizing disease promotion

Document analysis of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World's scientific outputs and activities: a case study in contemporary tobacco industry agnogenesis

BACKGROUND

Tobacco corporation Philip Morris International launched the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW), a purportedly independent scientific organisation, in 2017. We aimed to systematically investigate FSFW's activities and outputs, comparing these with previous industry attempts to influence science, as identified in the recently developed typology of corporate influence on science, the Science for Profit Model (SPM).

DESIGN

We prospectively collected data on FSFW over a 4-year period, 2017-2021, and used document analysis to assess whether FSFW's activities mirror practices tobacco and other industries have historically used to shape science in their own interests. We used the SPM as an analytical framework, working deductively to search for use of the strategies it identifies, and inductively to search for any additional strategies.

RESULTS

Marked similarities between FSFW's practices and previous corporate attempts to influence science were observed, including: producing tobacco industry-friendly research and opinion; obscuring industry involvement in science; funding third parties which denigrate science and scientists that may threaten industry profitability; and promoting tobacco industry credibility.

CONCLUSIONS

Our paper identifies FSFW as a new vehicle for agnogenesis, indicating that, over 70 years since the tobacco industry began to manipulate science, efforts to protect science from its interference remain inadequate. This, combined with growing evidence that other industries are engaging in similar practices, illustrates the urgent need to develop more robust systems to protect scientific integrity.

Tobacco companies, corporate social responsibility and the use of third-party awards: a framing analysis

OBJECTIVE

Corporate social responsibility activities, such as third-party awards, provide an opportunity for tobacco companies (TCs) to promote themselves as socially, economically and environmentally responsible organisations. This study aimed to determine how TCs are using third-party awards to frame themselves and their core activities via company-controlled communication channels.

METHODS

TC-owned media coverage promoting third-party awards was identified from company-owned media channels, including websites, reports, press releases and Twitter. Using framing theory and thematic analysis, frames and broader themes were identified using a process of inductive coding.

RESULTS

TC-produced media content promoting third-party awards framed the companies as socially and environmentally responsible organisations, which excel at business and are innovative and transformative. Dominant frames identified included excellent workplace culture, championing diversity and inclusion and action on the environment.

CONCLUSION

TCs are capitalising on the perceived credibility and objectivity of third-party awards using these 'honours' as a promotional strategy to justify their continuing role in society and enhance their perceived legitimacy in relation to claims of ethical and responsible behaviour. The results of this study have implications for tobacco control advocacy, as continuing to allow the promotion of these awards appears to contravene or conflict with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

How commercial actors used different types of power to influence policy on restricting food marketing: a qualitative study with policy actors in Thailand

OBJECTIVES

There is limited research focused explicitly on understanding how commercial actors use different forms of power to influence policy decision making in Thailand. This study aimed to identify how the food industry has used structural, instrumental and discursive power to influence policy on restricting food marketing in Thailand.

STUDY DESIGN

Qualitative study using in-depth semistructured interviews SETTINGS: Thailand.

PARTICIPANTS

The interviews were conducted with 20 participants (of a total of 29 invited actors) from government, civil society, technical experts, international organisation and the food and advertising industry. Interview data were identified in the transcripts and analysed using abductive methods.

RESULTS

Non-commercial actors perceived the commercial actors' structural power (its economic influence and structurally privileged position) as central to understanding the government having not implemented policy to restrict food marketing. The commercial actors' instrumental power was observed through sponsorship, campaign and lobbying activities. Discursive power was used by the industry to shift responsibility away from the food companies and onto their customers, by focusing their messaging on freedom of consumer choice and consumer health literacy.

CONCLUSIONS

This study examined different types of power that commercial actors were perceived to use to influence policy to restrict food marketing in Thailand. The study showed arguments and institutional processes used to enhance commercial actors' ability to shape the policy decision for nutrition, public opinion and the broader regulatory environment. The findings help governments and other stakeholders to anticipate industry efforts to counter policy. The findings also suggest the need for governance structures that counter industry power, including comprehensive monitoring and enforcement in policy implementation.

Cigarette Packs With URLs Leading to Tobacco Company Websites: Content Analysis

BACKGROUND

Tobacco companies include on the packaging of their products URLs directing consumers to websites that contain protobacco messages. Online media tend to be underregulated and provide the industry with an opportunity to present users with protobacco communication.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of our study was to document the content of websites that were advertised on tobacco packs in 14 low- and middle-income countries.

METHODS

We purchased tobacco packs from 14 low- and middle-income countries in 2013 and examined them for the presence of URLs. We visited unique URLs on multiple occasions between October 1, 2016 and August 9, 2017. We developed a coding checklist and used it to conduct a content analysis of active corporate websites to identify types of protobacco communication. The coding checklist included the presence of regulatory controls and warnings, engagement strategies, marketing appeals (eg, description of product popularity, luxury/quality, taste), corporate social responsibility programs, and image management. We coded brand websites separately and also described social media and other website types.

RESULTS

We identified 89 unique URLs, of which 54 were active during the search period. We assessed 26 corporate websites, 21 brand websites, 2 nontobacco websites, and 5 social media pages. We excluded 2 corporate websites and 14 brand websites due to limited accessible content or incomplete content. Corporate social responsibility was discussed on all corporate websites, and marketing appeals were also common. Corporate websites were also more likely to include more nonspecific (12/24, 50%) than specific (7/24, 29%) health warnings. Promotions (6/7, 86%) and sociability appeals (3/7, 43%) were common on brand websites. The small number of social media webpages in our sample used gendered marketing.

CONCLUSIONS

URLs appearing on tobacco packs direct consumers to websites where users are exposed to marketing that highlights the "positive" contributions of tobacco companies on corporate websites, and extensive promotions and marketing appeals on brand websites and social media pages. It is essential that marketing regulations become more comprehensive and ban all protobacco communication, a policy that is in line with articles 5.3 and 13 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. For countries that already ban internet tobacco advertising, enforcement efforts should be strengthened. Tobacco companies' use of URLs on packs may also be compelling for plain packaging advocacy, where all branding is removed from the pack and large graphic health warning labels are the only communication on the tobacco packaging. Future research should consider including tobacco websites in marketing surveillance.

The environmental externalities of tobacco manufacturing: A review of tobacco industry reporting

Growing research and public awareness of the environmental impacts of tobacco present an opportunity for environmental science and public health to work together. Various United Nations agencies share interests in mitigating the environmental costs of tobacco. Since 2000, transnational tobacco industry consolidation has accelerated, spotlighting the specific companies responsible for the environmental and human harms along the tobacco production chain. Simultaneously, corporate social responsibility norms have led the industry to disclose statistics on the environmental harms their business causes. Yet, independent and consistent reporting remain hurdles to accurately assessing tobacco's environmental impact. This article is the first to analyze publicly available industry data on tobacco manufacturing pollution. Tobacco's significant environmental impact suggests this industry should be included in environmental analyses as a driver of environmental degradation influencing climate change. Countries aiming to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals must act to reduce environmental harms caused by the tobacco industry.

Revolution or redux? Assessing IQOS through a precursor product

Background

Philip Morris International (PMI) currently claims that its heated tobacco product, IQOS, reduces health risk by reducing users’ exposure to harmful and potentially harmful constituents present in tobacco smoke. Given the tobacco industry’s long history of misrepresenting and obfuscating research, independent assessment of PMI’s claims is important. Analysis of Accord, a failed but strikingly similar precursor to IQOS, may help contextualise PMI’s claims in its Modified Risk Tobacco Product (MRTP) application.

Methods

We analysed previously secret internal Philip Morris (PM) and PMI documents, public communications and MRTP application.

Results

PM marketed Accord as a ‘cleaner’ tobacco product in an attempt to address smokers’ growing health concerns without making explicit health claims. While PM communications asserted that Accord reduced users’ exposure to harmful constituents, company scientists and executives consistently stressed to both regulators and the public that such reductions did not render Accord safer. IQOS’s design and marketing are similar to Accord’s. On the basis of aerosol chemistry data, IQOS reduces user exposure to some compounds compared with Accord but raises them for others.

Discussion

IQOS appears to be a variant of Accord without consistent improvements in exposure to aerosol toxic compounds. In contrast to PM’s past claims for Accord, PMI now claims in its MRTP application that IQOS reduces health risk. This shift in stance is likely not the result of any toxicological difference between Accord and IQOS, but rather a change in the social and regulatory landscape permitting these claims.

"What Is Our Story?" Philip Morris's Changing Corporate Narrative

OBJECTIVES

We sought to learn how employees reacted to changes in the corporate narrative of Philip Morris Companies (PMC) in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

METHODS

We analyzed archival internal tobacco industry documents about PMC's creation of a new corporate story.

RESULTS

In response to litigation and public opprobrium, PMC replaced its market success-oriented corporate narrative with a new one centered on responsibility. Although management sought to downplay inconsistencies between the old and new narratives, some employees reportedly had difficulty reconciling them, concerned that the responsibility focus might affect company profitability. However, others embraced the new narrative, suggesting radical ideas to prevent youth smoking. These ideas were not adopted.

CONCLUSIONS

PMC's new narrative was unconvincing to many of its employees, who perceived it either as a threat to the company's continued profits or as incongruous with what they had previously been told. As it had done with the public, PMC misled its employees in explaining a narrative repositioning that would help the company continue business as usual. Moving toward a tobacco endgame will require ongoing discursive and symbolic efforts to disrupt this narrative.

Exposing and addressing tobacco industry conduct in low-income and middle-income countries

The tobacco industry's future depends on increasing tobacco use in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), which face a growing burden of tobacco-related disease, yet have potential to prevent full-scale escalation of this epidemic. To drive up sales the industry markets its products heavily, deliberately targeting non-smokers and keeps prices low until smoking and local economies are sufficiently established to drive prices and profits up. The industry systematically flaunts existing tobacco control legislation and works aggressively to prevent future policies using its resource advantage to present highly misleading economic arguments, rebrand political activities as corporate social responsibility, and establish and use third parties to make its arguments more palatable. Increasingly it is using domestic litigation and international arbitration to bully LMICs from implementing effective policies and hijacking the problem of tobacco smuggling for policy gain, attempting to put itself in control of an illegal trade in which there is overwhelming historical evidence of its complicity. Progress will not be realised until tobacco industry interference is actively addressed as outlined in Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Exemplar LMICs show this action can be achieved and indicate that exposing tobacco industry misconduct is an essential first step.

Who has used internal company documents for biomedical and public health research and where did they find them?

OBJECTIVE

To describe the sources of internal company documents used in public health and healthcare research.

METHODS

We searched PubMed and Embase for articles using internal company documents to address a research question about a health-related topic. Our primary interest was where authors obtained internal company documents for their research. We also extracted information on type of company, type of research question, type of internal documents, and funding source.

RESULTS

Our searches identified 9,305 citations of which 357 were eligible. Scanning of reference lists and consultation with colleagues identified 4 additional articles, resulting in 361 included articles. Most articles examined internal tobacco company documents (325/361; 90%). Articles using documents from pharmaceutical companies (20/361; 6%) were the next most common. Tobacco articles used documents from repositories; pharmaceutical documents were from a range of sources. Most included articles relied upon internal company documents obtained through litigation (350/361; 97%). The research questions posed were primarily about company strategies to promote or position the company and its products (326/361; 90%). Most articles (346/361; 96%) used information from miscellaneous documents such as memos or letters, or from unspecified types of documents. When explicit information about study funding was provided (290/361 articles), the most common source was the US-based National Cancer Institute. We developed an alternative and more sensitive search targeted at identifying additional research articles using internal pharmaceutical company documents, but the search retrieved an impractical number of citations for review.

CONCLUSIONS

Internal company documents provide an excellent source of information on health topics (e.g., corporate behavior, study data) exemplified by articles based on tobacco industry documents. Pharmaceutical and other industry documents appear to have been less used for research, indicating a need for funding for this type of research and well-indexed and curated repositories to provide researchers with ready access to the documents.

The Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility: Techniques of Neutralization, Stakeholder Management and Political CSR

Since scholarly interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has primarily focused on the synergies between social and economic performance, our understanding of how (and the conditions under which) companies use CSR to produce policy outcomes that work against public welfare has remained comparatively under-developed. In particular, little is known about how corporate decision-makers privately reconcile the conflicts between public and private interests, even though this is likely to be relevant to understanding the limitations of CSR as a means of aligning business activity with the broader public interest. This study addresses this issue using internal tobacco industry documents to explore British-American Tobacco's (BAT) thinking on CSR and its effects on the company's CSR Programme. The article presents a three-stage model of CSR development, based on Sykes and Matza's theory of techniques of neutralization, which links together: how BAT managers made sense of the company's declining political authority in the mid-1990s; how they subsequently justified the use of CSR as a tool of stakeholder management aimed at diffusing the political impact of public health advocates by breaking up political constituencies working towards evidence-based tobacco regulation; and how CSR works ideologically to shape stakeholders' perceptions of the relative merits of competing approaches to tobacco control. Our analysis has three implications for research and practice. First, it underlines the importance of approaching corporate managers' public comments on CSR critically and situating them in their economic, political and historical contexts. Second, it illustrates the importance of focusing on the political aims and effects of CSR. Third, by showing how CSR practices are used to stymie evidence-based government regulation, the article underlines the importance of highlighting and developing matrices to assess the negative social impacts of CSR.

"The Big WHY": Philip Morris's failed search for corporate social value

OBJECTIVES

We examined Philip Morris USA's exploration of corporate social responsibility practices and principles and its outcome.

METHODS

We analyzed archival internal tobacco industry documents, generated in 2000 to 2002, related to discussions of corporate social responsibility among a Corporate Responsibility Taskforce and senior management at Philip Morris.

RESULTS

In exploring corporate social responsibility, Philip Morris executives sought to identify the company's social value-its positive contribution to society. Struggling to find an answer, they considered dramatically changing the way the company marketed its products, apologizing for past actions, and committing the company to providing benefits for future generations. These ideas were eventually abandoned. Despite an initial call to distinguish between social and economic value, Philip Morris ultimately equated social value with providing shareholder returns.

CONCLUSIONS

When even tobacco executives struggle to define their company's social value, it signals an opening to advocate for endgame scenarios that would encourage supply-side changes appropriate to the scale of the tobacco disease epidemic and consistent with authentic social value.

Tobacco industry denormalisation as a tobacco control intervention: a review

OBJECTIVE

To conduct a review of research examining the effects of tobacco industry denormalisation (TID) on smoking-related and attitude-related outcomes.

METHODS

The authors searched Pubmed and Scopus databases for articles published through December 2010 (see figure 1). We included all peer-reviewed TID studies we could locate that measured smoking-related outcomes and attitudes toward the tobacco industry. Exclusion criteria included: non-English language, focus on tobacco use rather than TID, perceived ad efficacy as sole outcome, complex program interventions without a separately analysable TID component and non peer-reviewed literature. We analysed the literature qualitatively and summarised findings by outcome measured.

RESULTS

After excluding articles not meeting the search criteria, the authors reviewed 60 studies examining TID and 9 smoking-related outcomes, including smoking prevalence, smoking initiation, intention to smoke and intention to quit. The authors also reviewed studies of attitudes towards the tobacco industry and its regulation. The majority of studies suggest that TID is effective in reducing smoking prevalence and initiation and increasing intentions to quit. Evidence is mixed for some other outcomes, but some of the divergent findings may be explained by study designs.

CONCLUSIONS

A robust body of evidence suggests that TID is an effective tobacco control intervention at the population level that has a clear exposure-response effect. TID may also contribute to other tobacco control outcomes not explored in this review (including efforts to 'directly erode industry power'), and thus may enhance public support and political will for structural reforms to end the tobacco epidemic.

Quid pro quo: tobacco companies and the black press

OBJECTIVES

We explored the relationship between tobacco companies and the Black press, which plays an important role in conveying information and opinions to Black communities.

METHODS

In this archival case study, we analyzed data from internal tobacco industry documents and archives of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the trade association of the Black press.

RESULTS

In exchange for advertising dollars and other support, the tobacco industry expected and received support from Black newspapers for tobacco industry policy positions. Beginning in the 1990s, resistance from within the Black community and reduced advertising budgets created counterpressures. The tobacco industry, however, continued to sustain NNPA support.

CONCLUSIONS

The quid pro quo between tobacco companies and the Black press violated journalistic standards and represented an unequal trade. Although numerous factors explain today's tobacco-related health disparities, the Black press's service to tobacco companies is problematic because of the trust that the community placed in such media. Understanding the relationship between the tobacco industry and the NNPA provides insight into strategies that the tobacco industry may use in other communities and countries.

The effects of smoking-related television advertising on smoking and intentions to quit among adults in the United States: 1999-2007

OBJECTIVES

We investigated whether state-sponsored antitobacco advertisements are associated with reduced adult smoking, and interactions between smoking-related advertising types.

METHODS

We measured mean exposure to smoking-related advertisements with television ratings for the top-75 US media markets from 1999 to 2007. We combined these data with individual-level Current Population Surveys Tobacco Use Supplement data and state tobacco control policy data.

RESULTS

Higher exposure to state-sponsored, Legacy, and pharmaceutical advertisements was associated with less smoking; higher exposure to tobacco industry advertisements was associated with more smoking. Higher exposure to state- and Legacy-sponsored advertisements was positively associated with intentions to quit and having made a past-year quit attempt; higher exposure to ads for pharmaceutical cessation aids was negatively associated with having made a quit attempt. There was a significant negative interaction between state- and Legacy-sponsored advertisements.

CONCLUSIONS

Exposure to state-sponsored advertisements was far below Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-recommended best practices. The significant negative relationships between antismoking advertising and adult smoking provide strong evidence that tobacco-control media campaigns help reduce adult smoking. The significant negative interaction between state- and Legacy-sponsored advertising suggests that the campaigns reinforce one another.

Social responsibility in tobacco production? Tobacco companies' use of green supply chains to obscure the real costs of tobacco farming

BACKGROUND

Tobacco companies have come under increased criticism because of environmental and labour practices related to growing tobacco in developing countries.

METHODS

Analysis of tobacco industry documents, industry websites and interviews with tobacco farmers in Tanzania and tobacco farm workers, farm authorities, trade unionists, government officials and corporate executives from global tobacco leaf companies in Malawi.

RESULTS

British American Tobacco and Philip Morris created supply chains in the 1990 s to improve production efficiency, control, access to markets and profits. In the 2000s, the companies used their supply chains in an attempt to legitimise their portrayals of tobacco farming as socially and environmentally friendly, rather than take meaningful steps to eliminate child labour and reduce deforestation in developing countries. The tobacco companies used nominal self-evaluation (not truly independent evaluators) and public relations to create the impression of social responsibility. The companies benefit from $1.2 billion in unpaid labour costs because of child labour and more than $64 million annually in costs that would have been made to avoid tobacco-related deforestation in the top 12 tobacco growing developing countries, far exceeding the money they spend nominally working to change these practices.

CONCLUSIONS

The tobacco industry uses green supply chains to make tobacco farming in developing countries appear sustainable while continuing to purchase leaf produced with child labour and high rates of deforestation. Strategies to counter green supply chain schemes include securing implementing protocols for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to regulate the companies' practices at the farm level.

Corporate social responsibility and access to policy élites: an analysis of tobacco industry documents

BACKGROUND

Recent attempts by large tobacco companies to represent themselves as socially responsible have been widely dismissed as image management. Existing research supports such claims by pointing to the failings and misleading nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. However, few studies have focused in depth on what tobacco companies hoped to achieve through CSR or reflected on the extent to which these ambitions have been realised.

METHODS AND FINDINGS

Iterative searching relating to CSR strategies was undertaken of internal British American Tobacco (BAT) documents, released through litigation in the US. Relevant documents (764) were indexed and qualitatively analysed. In the past decade, BAT has actively developed a wide-ranging CSR programme. Company documents indicate that one of the key aims of this programme was to help the company secure access to policymakers and, thereby, increase the company's chances of influencing policy decisions. Taking the UK as a case study, this paper demonstrates the way in which CSR can be used to renew and maintain dialogue with policymakers, even in ostensibly unreceptive political contexts. In practice, the impact of this political use of CSR is likely to be context specific; depending on factors such as policy élites' understanding of the credibility of companies as a reliable source of information.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that tobacco company CSR strategies can enable access to and dialogue with policymakers and provide opportunities for issue definition. CSR should therefore be seen as a form of corporate political activity. This underlines the need for broad implementation of Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Measures are needed to ensure transparency of interactions between all parts of government and the tobacco industry and for policy makers to be made more aware of what companies hope to achieve through CSR.

Through tobacco industry eyes: civil society and the FCTC process from Philip Morris and British American Tobacco's perspectives

OBJECTIVE

To analyse the models Philip Morris (PM) and British American Tobacco (BAT) used internally to understand tobacco control non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their relationship to the global tobacco control policy-making process that resulted in the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC).

METHODS

Analysis of internal tobacco industry documents in the Legacy Tobacco Document Library.

RESULTS

PM contracted with Mongoven, Biscoe, and Duchin, Inc. (MBD, a consulting firm specialising in NGO surveillance) as advisors. MBD argued that because NGOs are increasingly linked to epistemic communities, NGOs could insert themselves into the global policy-making process and influence the discourse surrounding the treaty-making process. MBD advised PM to insert itself into the policy-making process, mimicking NGO behaviour. BAT's Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (CORA) department argued that global regulation emerged from the perception (by NGOs and governments) that the industry could not regulate itself, leading to BAT advocating social alignment and self-regulation to minimise the impact of the FCTC. Most efforts to block or redirect the FCTC failed.

CONCLUSIONS

PM and BAT articulated a global policy-making environment in which NGOs are key, non-state stakeholders, and as a result, internationalised some of their previous national-level strategies. After both companies failed to prevent the FCTC, their strategies began to align. Multinational corporations have continued to successfully employ some of the strategies outlined in this paper at the local and national level while being formally excluded from ongoing FCTC negotiations at the global level.

The "We Card" program: tobacco industry "youth smoking prevention" as industry self-preservation

The "We Card" program is the most ubiquitous tobacco industry "youth smoking prevention" program in the United States, and its retailer materials have been copied in other countries. The program's effectiveness has been questioned, but no previous studies have examined its development, goals, and uses from the tobacco industry's perspective. On the basis of our analysis of tobacco industry documents released under the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, we concluded that the We Card program was undertaken for 2 primary purposes: to improve the tobacco industry's image and to reduce regulation and the enforcement of existing laws. Policymakers should be cautious about accepting industry self-regulation at face value, both because it redounds to the industry's benefit and because it is ineffective.

Creating the "desired mindset": Philip Morris's efforts to improve its corporate image among women

Through analysis of tobacco company documents, we explored how and why Philip Morris sought to enhance its corporate image among American women. Philip Morris regarded women as an influential political group. To improve its image among women, while keeping tobacco off their organizational agendas, the company sponsored women's groups and programs. It also sought to appeal to women it defined as "active moms" by advertising its commitment to domestic violence victims. It was more successful in securing women's organizations as allies than active moms. Increasing tobacco's visibility as a global women's health issue may require addressing industry influence.

"Working the system"--British American tobacco's influence on the European union treaty and its implications for policy: an analysis of internal tobacco industry documents

BACKGROUND

Impact assessment (IA) of all major European Union (EU) policies is now mandatory. The form of IA used has been criticised for favouring corporate interests by overemphasising economic impacts and failing to adequately assess health impacts. Our study sought to assess how, why, and in what ways corporations, and particularly the tobacco industry, influenced the EU's approach to IA.

METHODS AND FINDINGS

In order to identify whether industry played a role in promoting this system of IA within the EU, we analysed internal documents from British American Tobacco (BAT) that were disclosed following a series of litigation cases in the United States. We combined this analysis with one of related literature and interviews with key informants. Our analysis demonstrates that from 1995 onwards BAT actively worked with other corporate actors to successfully promote a business-oriented form of IA that favoured large corporations. It appears that BAT favoured this form of IA because it could advance the company's European interests by establishing ground rules for policymaking that would: (i) provide an economic framework for evaluating all policy decisions, implicitly prioritising costs to businesses; (ii) secure early corporate involvement in policy discussions; (iii) bestow the corporate sector with a long-term advantage over other actors by increasing policymakers' dependence on information they supplied; and (iv) provide businesses with a persuasive means of challenging potential and existing legislation. The data reveal that an ensuing lobbying campaign, largely driven by BAT, helped secure binding changes to the EU Treaty via the Treaty of Amsterdam that required EU policymakers to minimise legislative burdens on businesses. Efforts subsequently focused on ensuring that these Treaty changes were translated into the application of a business orientated form of IA (cost-benefit analysis [CBA]) within EU policymaking procedures. Both the tobacco and chemical industries have since employed IA in apparent attempts to undermine key aspects of European policies designed to protect public health.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that BAT and its corporate allies have fundamentally altered the way in which all EU policy is made by making a business-oriented form of IA mandatory. This increases the likelihood that the EU will produce policies that advance the interests of major corporations, including those that produce products damaging to health, rather than in the interests of its citizens. Given that the public health community, focusing on health IA, has largely welcomed the increasing policy interest in IA, this suggests that urgent consideration is required of the ways in which IA can be employed to undermine, as well as support, effective public health policies.

Turning negative into positive: public health mass media campaigns and negative advertising

Literature suggests that 'negative advertising' is an effective way to encourage behavioral changes, but it has enjoyed limited use in public health media campaigns. However, as public health increasingly focuses on non-communicable disease prevention, negative advertising could be more widely applied. This analysis considers an illustrative case from tobacco control. Relying on internal tobacco industry documents, surveys and experimental data and drawing from political advocacy literature, we describe tobacco industry and public health research on the American Legacy Foundation's "truth" campaign, an example of effective negative advertising in the service of public health. The tobacco industry determined that the most effective advertisements run by Legacy's "truth" campaign were negative advertisements. Although the tobacco industry's own research suggested that these negative ads identified and effectively reframed the cigarette as a harmful consumer product rather than focusing solely on tobacco companies, Philip Morris accused Legacy of 'vilifying' it. Public health researchers have demonstrated the effectiveness of the "truth" campaign in reducing smoking initiation. Research on political advocacy demonstrating the value of negative advertising has rarely been used in the development of public health media campaigns, but negative advertising can effectively communicate certain public health messages and serve to counter corporate disease promotion.

Tobacco industry use of corporate social responsibility tactics as a sword and a shield on secondhand smoke issues

The tobacco industry has used corporate social responsibility tactics to improve its corporate image with the public, press, and regulators who increasingly have grown to view it as a merchant of death. There is, however, an intractable problem that corporate social responsibility efforts can mask but not resolve: the tobacco industry's products are lethal when used as directed, and no amount of corporate social responsibility activity can reconcile that fundamental contradiction with ethical corporate citizenship. This study's focus is to better understand the tobacco industry's corporate social responsibility efforts and to assess whether there has been any substantive change in the way it does business with regard to the issue of exposure to secondhand smoke. The results show that the industry has made no substantial changes and in fact has continued with business as usual. Although many of the tobacco companies' tactics traditionally had been defensive, they strove for a way to change to a more offensive strategy. Almost without exception, however, their desire to appear to be good corporate citizens clashed with their aversion to further regulation and jeopardizing their legal position, perhaps an irreconcilable conflict. Despite the switch to offense, in 2006 a federal judge found the companies guilty of racketeering.

"Working to shape what society's expectations of us should be": Philip Morris' societal alignment strategy

BACKGROUND

A key element of Philip Morris's (PM's) corporate social responsibility initiatives is "societal alignment", defined as "strategies and programs to meet society's expectations of a responsible tobacco company". This study explored the genesis and implementation of Philip Morris' (PM) societal alignment efforts.

METHODS

The study retrieved and analysed approximately 375 previously undisclosed PM documents now available electronically. Using an iterative process, the study categorised themes and prepared a case analysis.

RESULTS

Beginning in 1999, PM sought to become "societally aligned" by identifying expectations of a responsible tobacco company through public opinion research and developing and publicising programs to meet those expectations. Societal alignment was undertaken within the US and globally to ensure an environment favourable to PM's business objectives. Despite PM's claims to be "changing", however, societal alignment in practice was highly selective. PM responded to public "expectations" largely by retooling existing positions and programs, while entirely ignoring other expectations that might have interfered with its business goals. It also appears that convincing employees of the value and authenticity of societal alignment was difficult.

CONCLUSIONS

As implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control proceeds, tobacco control advocates should closely monitor development of such "alignment" initiatives and expose the motivations and contradictions they reveal.