Daily Doc: TI, Jun 19, 1986: Attack on Mass. Bay Transportation Authority
Daily Doc: Attack on Mass. Bay Transportation Authority
Title: MBTA PROPOSED BAN ON CIGARETTE ADVERTISING - UPDATE #9
TI, Jun 19, 1986
Bates #: TIOR0011648/1651
March 7, 2000
In the U.S., the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) found itself the target of tobacco industry attack after its board voted to stop accepting cigarette ads on its vehicles and facilites in 1986. The TI devised a comprehensive plan to force MBTA to reverse the decision, using a number of different strategies to try and make this come about:
The TI incited ad agencies that had lost out on MBTA's advertising contracts in the past to sue MBTA for discrimination in its award processes. They tried to insert a clause in the state budget to force MBTA "to maximize ad revenues from all legal sources" (including tobacco) and use any excess money to aid the handicapped and the elderly (the TI smugly referred to this as its "white hat proposal"). They forced the MBTA to supply it with copies of all of its records pertaining to contract awards by using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) laws. They tried to incite discontent in cities along MBTA's routes. They tried to get the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the labor unions to galvanize against MBTA. As a fall-back measure, they planned to influence their political allies in the federal government to cut MBTA's funding...
[Note, by the way, that all these oppositional plans were drafted by the VERY same industry that argues people should have the "freedom of choice" to do what they like...]
This all seemed like a whole lot of pressure for one transportation authority to handle...I called MBTA to see if I could find out how this all turned out, but found no employees had been there long enough to remember any of this, so I can't tell you how it turned out. Anyone in MA know what happened?
CITATION
Title: MBTA PROPOSED BAN ON CIGARETTE ADVERTISING - UPDATE #9
Type of Document: memo
Author: Dyer, DM
Recipient: Buckley, WP
Date: 19860619
Site: Tobacco Institute document site http://www.tobaccoinstitute.com/
Bates No. TIOR0011648/1651
Page Count: 4
URL: http://www.tobaccoinstitute.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=TIOR0011648/1651
QUOTES
This memorandum will bring you up-to-date on the status of our program to reverse the action of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) to ban cigarette advertising from the system's vehicles and facilities...
...The best available means of extending [the amount time available to implement programs against MBTA] seems to be through the legal intervention of a third party - one of the [advertising] contract bidders or Local #391...who ultimately obtains a preliminary injunction...is irrelevant. The current issue is that someone obtain that order...
....Our plan here is to continue to generate negative political response to the MBTA action in the cities and towns served by the MBTA.
...It is still possible that the MBTA...might respond to pressure from federal office-holders who participate in the Congressional committees that have control over some forms of transit funding. These include the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
[and, from a separate document:]
We have offered a measure that requires the MBTA to maximize advertising revenue from all legal sources and channel those funds to help the elderly and handicapped. This "white hat" proposal would supersede the ban on tobacco advertising and, in theory at least, require the MBTA to use all legal sources for this worthwhile project...[handwritten -->]...including tobacco advertising.
--[Mozingo, R., Statement/testimony to the Tobacco Institute, April 7, 1988. Tobacco Institute.
Bates No. TIOK0019080/9094, http://www.tobaccoinstitute.com]
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