The nation’s leading cigarette manufacturer convened with ethnic media outlets in South Beach last week to put a face on the big tobacco name.

Members of media affairs and corporate communications at Philip Morris USA, the U.S. cigarette industry’s highest revenue, income, volume and market share generator, hosted a Nov. 15 luncheon at Emeril’s restaurant.

 

The purpose of the luncheon was to discuss the company’s marketing efforts, smoking cessation programs, new research and products. The company also introduced the executives who are responsible for responding to media inquiries and who direct the ethnic media outreach for the company.

Four publications, including the Broward Times, and members of a local communications company, attended the event.

The company has no current or future plans to market its products – which cause lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other serious diseases – to ethnic markets, the executives said.

“Promotions are national,” said Bill Phelps, manager of media affairs for Philip Morris USA. “Marketing is broad based. We do not target ethnicities.”

The company’s Virginia Slims cigarettes are an example of target marketing, said Phelps. But, he said, they are targeted to women over the age of 21, not to an ethnicity.

“This outreach is to talk about the industry in general terms,” Phelps said.

Although Phelps stated that the company’s marketing is broad-based, the Philip Morris news release specifically inviting the ethnic media to the luncheon stated that it would be “a Miami Market lunchtime discussion about PM USA’s marketing efforts, its relationship with ethnic media, current tobacco legislation and how it relates to African Americans and Hispanics.’’

 

In the past, the company has clearly marketed tobacco products to minorities.

In June, a Coral Gables attorney filed suit against several tobacco companies, including Philip Morris USA, accusing them of targeting black consumers.

Attorney J.B. Harris is seeking more than $1 billion in damages on behalf of Gloria Tucker of Coral Springs, a black woman whose mother and grandmother died of health problems related to smoking.

Tucker’s mother, Dorothy Oliver, died on Nov. 29, 2000. Her grandmother, Annie Mae Swain, died on July 5, 1994.

Citing marketing documents from the tobacco companies, the suit claims that they used unflattering generalizations about African-Americans and suggested recruiting black smokers through – among other venues—black churches, night clubs and traffic court, where they said 75 percent of the pedestrian traffic on weekdays is black.

The suit, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, is an outgrowth of the Engle class-action lawsuit from the 1990s alleging that cigarette makers were “cynical and exploitive’’ in marketing that preyed upon black communities.

At the time of the lawsuit, Philip Morris USA issued the following statement: “Philip Morris USA believes it is premature to comment on any specific lawsuits filed that are linked to the Engle case because the company currently is seeking further review of the Engle decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. However, if any individual cases do proceed, the company intends to vigorously defend them.’’

During last week’s luncheon, Phelps said, “We did not do a good job listening years back. We are making sure you know we are interested and available to answer your questions,’’ he said, referring to the tobacco industry and PM’s prior history of non-response to public health reports and public outcry regarding the hazards of cigarette and tobacco products.

In 1997, the State of Florida was one of four states that reached a settlement agreement with Philip Morris USA and other leading cigarette manufacturers. These agreements plus the Master Settlement Agreement signed in 1998 by the Attorneys General of 46 states, five U.S. territories and the District of Columbia are referred to as the Tobacco Settlement Agreements, according to PhilipMorrisUSA.com.

The tobacco settlement agreement essentially changed how tobacco products could be marketed and sold in the U.S., and required Philip Morris and other tobacco companies to pay billions of dollars to the states, according to the website.

Over the past 10 years, Philip Morris USA, has paid more than $38 billion to the states, as a result of the tobacco settlement agreement—the company’s net profit was $18.5 billion in 2006, alone, according to its website.

Philip Morris USA now conducts marketing in two main ways: First, it sends direct mail to adults over 21 who already smoke and who request product information. Second, the company does in-store advertising, Phelps said.

Retailers are required to abide by the marketing guidelines, said Valerie Boddie Bradley, a new member of corporate communications and a three-year veteran in territory sales for the organization.

The retailers are provided with the proper signage and will be penalized for not abiding by the guidelines, including having payments withheld for a month, she said.

The company supports one central public health message.

“It is addictive and causes serious diseases,” Phelps said of cigarette smoking.

The future of the company is based upon developing ways to reduce the harm of the product and broadening the product base, Phelps said.

Harm reduction includes identifying the harmful chemicals that are produced when tobacco is burned, and reducing them.

Smoking cessation and youth prevention initiatives are also harm reduction programs that the company utilizes.

“If you are an adult, and you make the decision to stop smoking, we play a role in assisting,’’ Phelps said. “When kids smoke, it hurts our business.”

The company is also test marketing smokeless tobacco to broaden the product base, Phelps said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control Smoking & Tobacco Use Fact Sheet:

• Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S., accounting for 1 of every 5 deaths each year.

• 20.8% of all U.S. adults (45.3 million people) smoke cigarettes.

• The prevalence of cigarette smoking: 32.4% among American Indians/Alaska Natives, 23.0% among African Americans, 21.9% among whites, 15.2% among Hispanics, and 10.4% among Asians (excluding Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders).

For more information visit, www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/Factsheets/adult_cig_smoking.htm