What The Tobacco Industry Has To Say - Corporate Accountability International - Challenging Abuse, Protecting People - Think Outside the Bottle


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In May 1998, U.S. tobacco corporations agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the state of Minnesota to recover the costs of treating tobacco-related illnesses. As part of the settlement, the companies, including Philip Morris (now Altria) and RJR Nabisco (now Reynolds American Tobacco), were forced to turn over millions of internal documents dating roughly from the 1950s to the 1990s, which were made available to the public under the terms of the settlement. The industry documents, now posted on the internet, provide hard evidence of what the tobacco corporations knew, when they knew about the dangers of their products and the addictiveness of nicotine, and how they targeted young people with advertising and promotion.

These documents also show how threatened the corporate giants felt at facing a well-organized grassroots campaign and boycott.

Here is just a sample of what some of those internal documents reveal:

"This group could be real trouble. We are gearing up to defend."
Document #2023652220
A note bearing the initials of former Philip Morris CEO Michael Miles, handwritten across the top of a June 1993 memo about the launch of Infact's (now Corporate Accountability International) Tobacco Industry Campaign.

"We should keep a close intelligence watch and when they get down to a boycott tactic (it will most probably not be a tobacco product), then we will have to fight with everything we have."
Document #2047904453
An inter-office correspondence from Philip Morris spokesman Barry Holt, shortly after hiring Burson Marsteller, the public relations firm also used by Nestle, the target of Infact's (now Corporate Accountability International) first campaign.

"Since this critic group [Corporate Accountability International] began its campaign, Philip Morris has received 18,564 postcards or letters. The company has not responded to any of them--indeed, I recommend not giving credence to their campaign by answering...I have briefed senior executives at all the operating companies--PM USA, Miller Brewing, Kraft Foods, and KFG International, PM International--on this group's intentions and activities."
Document #2045994894
A January 1994 memo to Craig Fuller, Philip Morris Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs (and former Chief of Staff to Vice President George H.W. Bush), indicating that Philip Morris takes Infact's (now Corporate Accountability International) Campaign very seriously, despite the corporation's public posture of nonchalance.

"They began with a postcard writing campaign and apparently have gotten a hold of our 800 number. What next???"
Document #2045994503
By March, 1994 Philip Morris was already feeling the pressure of Infact's (now Corporate Accountability International) boycott. Worried managers had many questions for corporate headquarters.

"The group has demonstrated that it is willing to wage long-term campaigns against its target companies and will devote all its energy and resources into 'fighting the abuse of transnational corporations'."
Document #2047904455
Philip Morris sums up Infact's (now Corporate Accountability International) power as a grassroots organization.

Quotes taken from Philip Morris internal documents retrievable from www.pmdocs.com