Addicted To Profit: Advertising
Roadkill
Stretching the Limits of Advertising
"The cigarette companies deny that these activities encourage young
people to smoke."
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By practicing the tactic of "brand-stretching," or "trademark
diversification" as the companies like to call it, cigarette firms
have put their logos on clothing lines, racing boats, backpacks,
coffee and even travel agencies.7 Although they deny it,
brand-stretching allows the companies to advertise their cigarette
brand names without violating laws prohibiting the advertisement of
cigarettes. In Malaysia, for example, four of the top ten advertisers
have cigarette brand names in their title, including Peter Stuyvesant
Travel and Benson & Hedges Bistro.
Internal RJ Reynolds International documents state that 'Salem
Attitude', a chain of clothing stores in Hong Kong, was established to
"extend the trademark beyond tobacco category restrictions....The
Salem Attitude image campaign will survive marketing restrictions." In
Malaysia, a RJ Reynolds subsidiary licenses the Camel name to makers
of "adventure gear" clothing, now one of the country's best-selling
lines of clothing.8 Recently in Beijing, Philip Morris began offering
sportswear emblazoned with the Marlboro logo -- including hats,
jackets and watches -- in exchange for empty Marlboro cigarette packs.
The company reportedly mailed promotional materials for the giveaways
to junior high-school students.9 The company also operates Marlboro
Classics stores across Europe and Asia, selling everything from
lizard-skin cowboy boots to wool blankets.10
In January of 1998, the Times of London reported that cigarette
companies were testing ways to skirt the recently passed European
Union-wide cigarette advertising ban that will take effect in 2006 by
pushing their cigarette brand names through a line of coffee products.
Starting with a trial run in Malaysia, BAT is hoping to open up a
string of "Benson & Hedges" coffee shops. Testing in Malaysia is being
carried out by World Investment Company, a private company reportedly
created by BAT expressly for the purpose of developing consumer
products which use its cigarette brand names. At the coffee shops,
customers are waited on by staff adorned with logos of the Benson &
Hedges gold colored cigarette package and are served Benson & Hedges
Quality Blend Coffee. Says Danny Sta. Maria, the manager of one of the
shops in Kuala Lumpur, "The idea is to be smoker-friendly. Smokers
associate a coffee with a cigarette. They are both drugs of a type." A
source close to the project called the promotion a "logical step" for
the company. "They are running out of markets in which they can openly
advertise. So the thinking is, well, 'Okay, if we can't advertise
cigarettes we will advertise another product which will have a halo
effect on the cigarette brand." Although the EU ban is supposed to ban
all forms of "indirect advertising," the tobacco companies believe
that enterprises which are profitable in their own right cannot be
stopped from using the trademark names. The coffee shops are just one
of a number of spin-off brands developed by BAT. Others include the
Kent travel agency, John Player whiskey and Lucky Strike Clothing.11
Sports and Entertainment Sponsorship
The multinational cigarette companies spend millions of dollars
sponsoring sporting events and teams. Sponsorships publicize their
brand names and, according to the WHO, create "subconscious positive
images" of the relationship between smoking and athletics.12 Among
recent sports sponsorship examples:
The Chinese national soccer league has been christened the "Marlboro
Professional Soccer League,"13 while the "Asia Marlboro" road-racing
competition is featured prominently on Chinese TV,14 allowing Philip
Morris to circumvent Chinese law banning cigarette advertising. Hilton
cigarettes sponsors the national basketball team, while another BAT
brand, 555, backs the Hong Kong-Beijing car rally. Marlboro, 555 and
Hilton are the three most popular brands in China.15
In Hong Kong, Salem sponsors tennis tournaments featuring Michael
Chang, an idol to many teenagers, while the U.S. Open tennis
tournament has been carried on Malaysian television as the "Salem
Tennis Open."16
RJ Reynolds has sponsored tennis tournaments in Asia in which U.S.
tennis stars Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Pat Cash have appeared.17
Senegal's most beloved wrestler, Mohamed "Tyson" Ndour, who does a
trademark dance wearing an American flag after every victory, promotes
Marlboros in a TV advertisement which shows a close-up of Ndour giving
a thumbs-up sign as the camera pans "M-A-R-L-B-O-R-O" across the
screen.18
Philip Morris pays $1 million annually to sponsor the Zhuhai
International Car Race in China.20
In Sri Lanka, BAT began marketing Benson & Hedges in 1996 by
introducing it on a televised cricket match from Australia where the
Sri Lankan national team (and defending world champions) were playing.
By doing this, the company avoided violating Sri Lanka's ban on
domestic cigarette advertising. 21
In a number of countries in Eastern Europe, Philip Morris sponsors the
'Marlboro Adventure Team' contest, in which the winners receive an
all-expenses paid trip to Utah where they ride horses and dirt-bikes
and go whitewater rafting. Contestants fill out lengthy questionnaires
and are tested on their athletic ability. Most of the winners are
non-smokers.22
The cigarette companies also spend millions of dollars sponsoring and
promoting entertainment events that appeal to young people. Cigarettes
and promotional items are often given away at these events in order to
hook new smokers and promote the companies' brand names:
In Sri Lanka, BAT has promoted its brands by sponsoring lavish discos
at which young, attractive women (called "golden girls") work the
crowd, handing out cigarettes and encouraging customers to smoke them.
Numerous door prizes are given away: key rings, shirts, caps, etc.
While young Sri Lankans groove to the latest dance music, a laser
light writes "Benson & Hedges" on the walls. BAT also sponsors pop
music magazines and rock groups in Sri Lanka, and manages to skirt a
ban on cigarette advertising on the radio by underwriting a "Golden
Tones Contest" on the English-language radio station that has a large
teen audience.23
At the Canton Disco in China, RJ Reynolds pays internationally known
artists to perform, distributes free cigarette samples during the
shows and advertises Salems during and after the shows. In South
Korea, the company sponsored the "Yves Saint Laurent [cigarette brand]
Paul Anka Concert". In Beijing, Philip Morris underwrites the popular
"Marlboro American Music Hour," featuring songs by Elvis Presley and
Michael Jackson, while in Kuala Lumpur, records and CDs are sold at
the "Salem Power Station." In Hong Kong, where cigarette television
advertising is banned, Philip Morris sponsors televised rock concerts
called the "Marlboro Rock-In" series. Meanwhile, in Japan, television
commercials for the company's Lark brand have shown actors James
Coburn, Pierce Brosnan and Robert Wagner starring in action
vignettes.24
Three times a week BAT sponsors a fancy disco in Beijing to advertise
its 555 brand. The Washington Post reports that "slender Chinese women
in blue tops, miniskirts and boots all emblazoned with the 555 logo
greet people at the door, handing out free cigarettes. Customers crowd
the smoke-filled dance floor, writhing to rock music below two huge
banners with the 555 logo proclaiming: 'Be free from worldly cares.'"
25
In Hong Kong, Philip Morris sponsors giveaways where consumers trade
in empty packs of Marlboros for backpacks, lighters and other
paraphernalia emblazoned with the Marlboro logo. A marketing executive
for Philip Morris in Hong Kong denies that the company is trying to
encourage people to smoke. "But you know how people in Hong Kong love
promotions that involve prizes," he says. "We can't control that." RJ
Reynolds meanwhile distributes autographed videodiscs of a popular
local singer in exchange for empty packs of Salems.26
In the early 1990s in Hong Kong, a Madonna concert that took place in
Spain was rebroadcast on television as a "Salem: Madonna Blond
Ambition Tour" with the Salem logo superimposed over the stage. More
recently, Salem has sponsored a "virtual reality dome" in Hong Kong,
where teenagers can come and fire laser guns at each other,27 and
distributes removable tattoos of the Salem logo.28
In the Ukraine, RJ Reynolds has sponsored and videotaped lavish
parties showing "affluent, fashion-conscious young sophisticates
dancing, drinking champagne and smoking in a nightclub adorned with
Camel posters, featuring a skimpily clad Camel girls' dance group,"
says a report in the Washington Post. Desperate for free programming,
the state-owned television company later ran the tape numerous times
on prime-time television.29
In 1997, Philip Morris sent a traveling disco to the Siberian city of
Novosibirsk with processional dancers, an elaborate light and sound
system and staff dressed in Marlboro gear. The price of admission?
Five empty packs of Marlboros, three if you were a student. According
to John Brier, an American who filmed the disco, "You showed your
packs at the gate. You couldn't say 'I don't smoke. Can I pay to get
in?' You had to have the cigarettes. They advertised it consistently
for a month. It was on the radio. There were flyers on light poles.
Every night there were hundreds of people, sometimes a thousand on
weekends."30 RJ Reynolds reportedly practices the same technique in
Taiwan.31
In 1996, playing cards were inserted into packs of Camels in Argentina
which could be redeemed for posters, boxer shorts, shot glasses, and,
for ten lucky winners, Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Advertisements in
buses for Joe Camel and his "Hard Pack" blues band became so popular
that they were "disappearing almost as fast as they went up," reports
the Wall Street Journal. Following the introduction of these
promotional efforts, sales of Camel cigarettes in Argentina shot up by
50 percent.32
The cigarette companies deny that these activities encourage young
people to smoke. What they are simply doing, they say, is competing
for the loyalty of current smokers. According to the Tobacco
Manufacturers' Association, "One characteristic which tobacco
advertising and tobacco sponsorship both share...is that neither
activity encourages non-smokers to start smoking or existing smokers
to smoke more."
There is certainly evidence to the contrary. A 1996 study published in
the British Medical Journal, for example, concluded that cigarette
company sponsorship of the India-New Zealand cricket series in 1995
did have a significant impact on kids who watched it on television.
The study concluded that the advertising created the impression among
the 1,948 children aged 13-16 years who participated in the survey
that "smoking gives more strength, improves batting and fielding and
ultimately increases the chance of winning." According to a survey by
the Australian Medical Association, 87 percent of young people in
Western Australia said that cricket players promote cigarettes. Benson
& Hedges has sponsored Australian cricket for 20 years.33
When indirect methods of sports and entertainment sponsorship do not
seem to be enough, the companies can always use more direct appeals.
In Kandy, Sri Lanka's second largest city, BAT has paid to paint the
logo of one of its most popular brands on the front wall of a
prestigious girls high school and the scoreboard of an exclusive boys
high school. BAT also hires young women (at five times the average
salary of a university graduate) to drive around the country in bright
red "Gold Leaf" cars and jeeps, giving out free cigarettes and
promotional items on college campuses, shopping malls and other places
where young people gather.34
http://www.essential.org/action/addicted/main.html
Mark Earnest
Roadkill wrote in message <790j68$mpn$1...@news-02.meganews.com>...