The tobacco industry faced growing pressure from health organizations and governments between 1950-2010 due to the negative health effects of smoking. The industry used public relations strategies like promoting smoking as cool and stress-relieving to influence public views and undermine anti-smoking efforts. Governments implemented various tobacco control policies over time like health warnings and advertising bans. Health organizations worked to educate the public on smoking risks while the industry sought to distract from these issues and maintain profits.
2. Key Players
Tobacco • Interest: Need to influence / convince public to continue
smoking
Industry • PR Problem: Concerned about negative views of cigarettes
Health • Interest: Dissuade people from smoking
Organisations • PR Problem: Tobacco industry is undermining their cause
• Interest: Placate citizens who weren’t happy about lax laws
Government with regard to smoking
3. Timeline
1970s 1977 1986 2005
• Promote • Launch of
the lifestyle Philip
aspect of • 1st Great • Philip
American Morris Morris
smoking QuitAssist
Smoke-out introduced
• Put health the Great
warnings on American
cigarette Smoker’s Kit
packets
4. Timeline
2010
• Use of social media to promote smoking.
For example, old cigarette advertisements
have started appearing on Youtube
• The Internet is able to work past a
country’s ban on cigarette advertising as
the Internet is not controlled by
boundaries
6. Policies
Government
1972 Mid-1980s 1997
• End of TV and • Tobacco • Government
radio tobacco considered as a workplaces go
advertising form of drug smoke-free
• Tobacco ads, direct addiction
mail, and POS
materials were
required to have
health warnings
7. Policies
Government
2010
• Tobacco companies are:
• Prohibited from sponsoring sports, music and cultural
events
• No longer allowed to use the words “light” and “mild”
in their ads
• Forbidden from giving out free samples
• 38 states are either smoke-free or have some sort of
smoking ban
• Soon, it will be a federal violation to sell cigarettes to
minors
8. Big Tobacco
PR Problem : Consumers aware of health
consequences of smoking
Spin Strategy : Smoke & Mirrors
- Distracting the public from the health problems
associated with smoking by….
9. Message : Smoking is cool,
a lifestyle choice
• Media
– Celebrities in movies and TV shows (Mad
Men)
– Reality TV shows (Jersey Shore)
10. Message : Smoking is cool,
a lifestyle choice
• Internet (Web 2.0)
– Facebook : „Likes‟, „Join Groups‟, Comments
– Celebrity newsblogs: paparazzi shots
11. Message: It’s okay to smoke
once in awhile
• Targeting: Social smokers
– 30-51% are social smokers
• Targeting :Fulltime Smokers
- „ Smoke in moderation‟
- Ads : statistics of lightvs
heavy smoker.
12. Message: Smoking is a good
stress reliever
• Internet (Web 2.0)
• Cigarette version of FML (F*** My Life)
- An interactive website which provides a platform for
anyone to air their views on any topic.
•Example of our version: INAS (I need a smoke)
• “My exams are in two days but I have yet to start
on four months worth of work! INAS”
13. Message: Smoking is a good
stress reliever cont’d
• Guerrilla tactics
Smoking ambassadors embedded in society to
influence people to smoke.
14. Message: Smoking is a good
stress reliever cont’d
• Advertisements
Smokers are portrayed as having a good time
while enjoying a puff.
15. Message: Undermining Health
Organisations
• “We are not the bad guys!”
The tobacco industry is not as bad as what health
organisationsportray them to be. The following 3 points will
serve to explain this statement.
• Condemn drugs
Shifting attention to drugs creates a better impression of the
tobacco industry.
• Public Relations Strategies
QuitAssist (Philip Morris)
- Website which assists smokers to quit
smoking and to stay quit.
16. Message: Undermining Health
Organisations cont’d
• Public Relations Strategies cont’d
- Nicotine replacement therapies (RJ Reynolds)
- Bought over Swedish company, Niconovum in
2009
31. Undermining Tobacco’s
messages
• Expose Tobacco industry‟s unethical ways
with documentaries, mockumentaries,
word of mouth, interviews with ex-lobbyists
or advertisers
• By harnessing rebellion and show them
how they‟ve been lied to and manipulated
by tobacco companies
Editor's Notes
1-6: Eunice7-9: Keisha10-11: Francis12-14: Melena15-16: Vera
Identify key players + interest+ the PR problem they face
Timeline shows the struggle between the tobacco industry and health organisations
Timeline shows the struggle between the tobacco industry and health organisations
Identify the PR problem they faceShow public they care
Main policies
Main policies
Identify PR ProblemsPR ProblemConcerned with negative views about productCausing health problemsConsumers are well aware of the potential health problems that come with smoking, and this might cause current consumers to stop smoking and prevent others from picking up smoking.As the spin team for Big Tobacco, we will suggest a few strategy that can help distract the public from the health problems associated with smoking by spreading the following messages.….Big Tobacco does face quite a large number of restrictions (such as the 1999 agreement that bans them from targetting kids) but we will discuss how we can get around this..
As mentioned in our first presentation, one of the messages Big Tobacco have been trying to spread since the 1960s, is that smoking is a cool lifestyle choice. It appears that this tactic has been very successful, it seems to have set in the minds of people all over the world. As suggested by Louw, once an image has been created, maintaining that image is equally important and therefore Big Tobacco should continue spreading this message while remaining relevant to today’s society and its trends. The media has always been a good tool for tobacco companies to use to spread this message and it should continue to do so..Reality TV shows have picked up in popularity in recent times, and therefore using shows such as Jersey Shore which depict the lives of interesting and high profile figures, are good ways of promoting the idea of smoking as the ‘in’ thing to do.
One trend that pretty much ‘defines’ the newest generation, is the use of the internet and social networking sites such as facebook.By creating facebook groups that consumers can join and ‘like’, it creates a virtual community of smokers, who can legitimise and reinforce each others’ smoking habits by writing comments and wall posts. Blogs are also a popular feature of the internet, and the popular ones such as celebrity blog sites are good places to advertise because its main demographic is young people. Tobacco companies can sponsor some of these sites, under the circumstance that they feature a ‘paparazzi shot’ of a celebrity smoking maybe once every seven posts.
Tobacco companies can produce smaller cigarette pack, with between 5-10 sticks inside, under the pretense that they are helping smokers to cut down the number of cigarettes they smoke. In reality, however, these packs can be bought by social smokers who can just buy one pack on their night out. They still contribute to BT’s revenue, and increases the chances that these social smokers eventually become full time smokers. ‘Smoke in moderation’ – it is not disputing/ignoring the health consequences (which is now common knowledge). Instead, it is suggesting that the health consequences are not so bad, considering that you smoke in moderation.
Message
Identify the PR problem they face
Identify the PR problem they face
Self conscious: emphasize on physical consequencesFamily-orientedEmphasize on harm to familyMoney-consciousEmphasize on financial harm
Smoking kills. Everyone knows this. So why don’t they stop? Well it’s because they’re immune to these pictures. People are desensitized by these messages. They are just words, just statistics. Just pictures of some extreme cases.We need to come up with innovative ideas to reinforce these messages. Make the idea of quitting smoking look cooler and less naggy.Less posters. Less nagging.
“If I get 1,234,567 fans, my dad said he will quit smoking” - 165,293 people like thisFacebook demographics: More than 500 million active users, There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statisticsAs the chart above illustrates, the total US Facebook population is made up of millions of people across a range of ages groups. While young adults (18-25) lead the way with a combined ~27 million users, the 26-34 group is close behind with ~21 million users. According to the data above there a combined ~18 million people over the age of 45 active on Facebook. These are impressive user numbers from an older demographic that continue to grow.http://www.kenburbary.com/2010/01/dispelling-the-youth-myth-five-useful-facebook-demographic-statistics/
shows people what they would look like if they suddenly piled on the pounds and became twice their size.Using the iPhone's camera, people can take a photo of the person and line up the person's eyes, mouth and chin with a fat-adding template.Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1283006/FatBooth-iPhone-app-supersizes-piling-pounds.html#ixzz139CiZRbA
shows people what they would look like if they suddenly piled on the pounds and became twice their size.Using the iPhone's camera, people can take a photo of the person and line up the person's eyes, mouth and chin with a fat-adding template.
Remember super mario? imagine cigarettes in place of where the mushrooms are,Whenever he jumps on a cigarette it’ll slow him down.