Presented by [Add Your Name Here]

UNFILTERED A revealing look at today’s tobacco industry

This report was prepared by…

Pop Quiz

Question: Imagine that you are a major consumer products industry that is prohibited by law from advertising in traditional ways. How do you continue to reach customers?

Pop Quiz

A. Manipulate products to make them more addictive?

B. Redesign products/packaging to increase appeal?

C. Identify loopholes in laws and exploit them?D. Positioning products as symbols of

independence, cultural identity and freedom?E. Give away free samples and merchandise?F. Fund community programs to distract attention

from your real business?G. All of the above?

Pop Quiz

Answer: If you are the tobacco industry,

The answer is “G.”

Here in Minnesota: 634,000 adults still smoke.

28.4 percent of young adults (18-24) are tobacco users.

85,000 middle and high school students smoke.

More than 5,500 people die every year of diseases caused by tobacco use.

Tobacco use = more than $2 billion in health care costs.

The tobacco industry spends more than $190 million in Minnesota every year to create new smokers and hold on to those it already has addicted.

By the Numbers

We All Pay the Price

A spotlight on a tobacco industry reinvented for the 21st Century.

What is Unfiltered?

*Unfiltered: A Revealing Look at Today’s Tobacco Industry is a project of ClearWay Minnesota.

Unfiltered makes tobacco industry’s role part of the discussion: Reveal: new products, savvy marketing and image campaigns

Link: tobacco industry = tobacco use

Remind: public health priority

Highlight: tobacco costs too much

Create involvement: learn, look, talk, act

What is Unfiltered?

The tobacco industry is resilient and creative in the face of public health successes and despite public opinion against tobacco use.

Key Findings

Unfiltered

The tobacco industry is actively working to counter health messages and increase tobacco use.

The Rules May Change…

Make tobacco use part of our cultural landscape.

Attract and retain customers through targeted marketing.

Use public relations to counter laws, lawsuits and health claims.

Reinvent brands/products to adapt to a changing landscape.

Look for markets outside the United States.

For the past 100 years, the tobacco industry has focused on five key strategies, these remain just as effective today.

… But the Game is the Same

Cultural Integration

Tobacco use is a social phenomenon largely propelled by mass media over the past century, led by tobacco industry professionals who constantly change strategies to reach their goals.

They combine the resourcefulness of a profit-making industry with a changing media and regulatory landscape to sell a product that remains our greatest public health challenge. We will not remove tobacco from our society unless we are willing to understand the industry’s constantly changing tactics.

Dr. Tim Johnson, ABC News Medical Editor, August 2008

Cultural Integration

Cultural Integration

Free tobacco distributed to soldiers during wars.

Smoking as a symbol of women’s liberation and independence.

…Thank you for the box of your products. Everyone was digging through the box looking for their favorite cigars and dip. . . .

. . . I know you will definitely have some loyal customers from our unit once we get back to the States.

- An American serviceman in Iraq, writing to Swisher International in 2005

Cultural Integration

Celebrity endorsements

Doctors’ endorsements to quell health concerns

“Just What the Doctor Ordered.’”

- L&M slogan

“More Doctors Smoke Camels”

- “R.J. Reynolds slogan

Cultural Integration

Marlboro Man as a symbol of rugged independence.

Tobacco products placed in movies, television shows and video games.

I said, “What’s the most masculine symbol you can think of?” And right off the top of his head, one of these writers spoke up and said a cowboy. And I said, “That’s for sure.”

- Advertising executive Leo Burnett, whose agency created the Marlboro Man

Target Marketing, PR and Innovation

Tobacco companies are considered the most able marketers in the world, and for good reason:

Brilliant developers of symbols and slogans Lots of $$$ to work with

In 2007, the tobacco industry spent $12.8 billion marketing its products in the U.S. - decades after it was barred from placing ads on TV.

Target Marketing

“Wherever Particular People Congregate”

Target Marketing

Women Equality Independence Beauty, fashion

and glamour Weight control

Men Strong/powerful Macho/rugged Sexually

attractive

“Light and Luscious,” “Now Available in Stiletto" “For the Most Fashion-Forward Woman”

- Camel No. 9 slogans

“Welcome to the Brotherhood”

- Skoal slogan

Target Marketing

Racial and Ethnic Populations Culturally specific images Popular music Lifestyle of affluent African

Americans

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Individuals

40-70 percent more likely to smoke

Placement of ads in GLBT publications

We don’t smoke that sh*t, we just sell it. We reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the black and the stupid.

- R.J. Reynolds executive, 1992

Target Marketing

Young People - targeting the psychological needs of adolescents

Popularity/peer acceptance

Positive self-image Appealing

flavors/packaging Pop culture

(movies/games)

Movies With Smoking, 2000-2009:

102 Dalmatians

Agent Cody Banks 2

Curious George

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Incredibles

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

Public Relations

Corporate sponsorships Support events and social

causes to get community support

Use charitable giving to ward off regulations

Image Campaigns: Keep America Beautiful Operation Ranger Philip Morris USA QuitAssist

In 1999, Philip Morris spent $100 million on a corporate image campaign to tout its charitable efforts – more than the $75 million it spent in actual donations.

Public Relations

Kids - The most important image

campaign of all. Hundreds of millions to youth

groups . . . . . . by an industry committed to

selling addictive products to them. Why? The future of the tobacco

industry depends on its ability to attract a generation of new customers.

A dangerous mixed message to kids:

It’s wrong to smoke cigarettes, but it’s OK to take money from the very industry that is trying to addict you.

Global Opportunism

International Markets—A New Frontier

The global marketplace = clean slate for methods outlawed in the U.S.

New Products for Overseas Markets:

Products tailored for cultural integration

Global Impact The WHO estimates more than 1

billion deaths from tobacco in the 21st Century.

[Philip Morris International] stock is going to be a cash cow. People in other countries smoke like chimneys. This company sells an addictive product legally. The dividends are high, profits are climbing. What’s not to like?

The Motley Fool investment website, July 2009

Point-of-Sale and Innovation

Point-of-Sale

It’s strategically important for manufacturers to hook smokers as early as possible.

The result: 80-90 percent of smokers start before their 18th birthday.

Point-of-Sale Advertising and Promotion 83 percent of marketing budget

Most spent on price promotions (BOGO, “buy-downs”)

Placement: child’s eye level, where teens shop, low socioeconomic neighborhoods

Recent developments have changed the game for tobacco marketers:

Widespread knowledge of the dangers of cigarettes

Record low smoking rates and less smoking in public places

Release of documents exposing tobacco industry deceptions and knowledge of tobacco’s harms

The industry must rely on product innovation to attract and retain tobacco users.

Tobacco companies have more than quadrupled their advertising/ promotional spending for smokeless products, from $77 million to $354 million.

Innovation

“Join the Snus Revolution”

Innovation

Not Your Grandparents’ Cigarette Americans gradually turning away

from cigarettes Industry adding sweet flavors to

appeal to younger palates

Studies have shown that 17-year-old smokers are three times as likely to use flavored cigarettes as smokers over the age of 25.

“It Doesn’t Even Taste Like Tobacco”

Products have strong, sweet, artificial flavors

Designed to appeal to “young adults”

Innovation

“They’re Not Cigarettes” Cigar manufacturers take

advantage of FDA regulations by promoting “little cigars”

Snus and Orbs, Sticks and Strips

Smoking bans = whole new generation of tobacco products

“Your flight just got canceled friendly,” “ridiculously long conference call friendly” “fancy hotel friendly”

“[Smokeless tobacco] is becoming more socially acceptable.”

- Dan Butler, president of U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, 2007

What can you do?

Action and Engagement

www.unfilteredmn.orgWebsite Activities:

View interactive vignettes Download the full report and supporting materials Post comments and share stories of tobacco marketing Upload photos of tobacco marketing from your community Become a Facebook Fan of We All Pay the Price for Tobacco

Contributing Partners

The Association for Nonsmokers—Minnesota • Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

Clarity Coverdale Fury • Giebink Design • Grassroots Solutions

Himle Horner, Inc. • Minnesota Tobacco Document Depository

Richard Hurt, M.D., Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center • Julie Jensen

Office of Tobacco Prevention and Control of the Minnesota Department of Health

John Pickerill, Fredrikson & Byron • Public Health Law Center

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation • Start Noticing Coalition • Sofia and Alison Stumpf

Trinkets & Trash • Tunheim Partners • Olivia Wackowski

Questions?