Sustainability. Crop to consumer. Supporting farmers. Innovation.
Fighting tobacco trafficking.
You may think the above statements come from a farmer’s
market, or community supported agriculture group, but you would be wrong. All of these phrases appear on a Big Tobacco
company’s website. If that doesn’t
outrage you…wait…there’s more!
Harm reduction. Yep,
that’s right! Harm reduction. So, they’re admitting their products cause
harm. Isn’t it sweet of them to be
concerned about their customers? Tobacco kills 500,000 people each year in the United States, so ask yourself
how this could possibly be a sustainable business unless they are actively
recruiting new smokers?
It looks like the
makers of Pall Mall, Kent, and Lucky Strike think their current and future
customers are pretty stupid. Why
else would they use phrases like “crop to consumer” or “sustainability” to
describe a product that is known to kill the user? Don’t worry.
When they say sustainable, they mean sustainable PROFITS. Oh yeah, it’s all about the profit for the
shareholders as they say:
Sustainability
underpins our business, and for us it’s all about shared value – creating value
for our shareholders, as well as being in the best interests of our
stakeholders.
One way Big Tobacco is trying to achieve this “value” for
shareholders is by claiming “harm reduction” is good for customers. That means, sure, the products can still harm
you, but they just harm you a little less. Really?
To pursue this “harm reduction policy” most Big Tobacco companies have
invested in e-cigarettes which they apparently see as the wave of the future
which they hope to ride to higher profits for their shareholders, no doubt.
Let’s not be fooled here.
The latest CDC report on teen e-cigarette use shows us that over 250,000
young people who have never smoked a traditional cigarette have tried an
e-cigarette. Of the youth surveyed who
have used an e-cigarette, 43.9% of them said they intend to smoke a traditional cigarette within the next year1.
According to a recent study
published in Tobacco Control, tobacco
companies in Europe which promoted “low risk smokeless tobacco” products were
actually more concerned about continuing sales of new tobacco products “without
cannibalizing existing profits from cigarettes”2.
The bottom line is that Big Tobacco will use words, phrases,
and images that seem wholesome and safe while continuing to produce and
sell their dangerous, addictive products.
Why? Because #TobaccoLies.
References:
- http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0825-e-cigarettes.html
- Peeters, S. & Gilmore, A. (2014). Understanding the emergence of the tobacco industry’s use of the term tobacco harm reduction in order to inform public health policy. Tobacco Control, (0)1-7. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2013-051502
