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Statement of Change to Philip Morris by Yul Francisco Dorado 2007 - English Statement by Corporate Accountability International Latin America Coordinator Yul Francisco Dorado At the Philip Morris/Altria Annual Shareholders' Meeting East Hanover, NJ-April 26, 2007 My name is Yul Francisco Dorado. I am Colombian and work as the Latin America Coordinator for Corporate Accountability International, supporting the ratification and implementation of the FCTC. In Latin America there is a great commitment to the public health agenda and a majority of countries have established regulations controlling the marketing and sale of tobacco products. In Latin America, Philip Morris/Altria operates on a double standard. On the one hand, your website informs us of a commitment not to sell tobacco products to youth, but on the other hand, all of the publicity and promotional strategies of Philip Morris are focused on sending messages to youth—adolescent boys and girls—in order to addict them to brands like Marlboro. I have here several photographs of Philip Morris marketing from my country. In the photographs you can observe a few examples that use text and images attractive to youth, to send messages about the “pleasure of smoking” at parties, sports events, family events, inviting them to participate in a raffle for high-speed motorcycles especially designed for adolescents. I also have pictures of vending machines in Colombia that dispense single cigarettes, and are strategically located next to freezers that sell ice cream, a favorite treat of boys and girls. Mr. Camilleri, my nation of Colombia is widely regarded as a place of violence, but it is the violence of the marketing practices of Philip Morris and the other tobacco transnationals that has taken far more innocent lives than all of the deaths from political violence over the last 50 years. Cigarettes kill more people than war, not just in Colombia, but throughout the world. Today’s image of Philip Morris is of a business that uses boys and girls to improve its profits, making them consumers of a deadly product. Communities in Third World countries are most affected by the tobacco epidemic. Those of us in Latin America who work for the health of boys and girls, would like to know your response to two questions. Mr. Camilleri: When will you give instructions to the managers of Philip Morris in Latin America and throughout the world to end advertising and promotion that addicts boys and girls to tobacco from a young age? When will we see those managers responsible for the ads shown here today disciplined and even dismissed?
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