Addicted to Profit: Advertising
Roadkill
(Addicted to Profit: Advertising)
Stretching the Limits of Advertising
"The cigarette companies deny that these activities encourage young
people to smoke."
------
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