Daily Doc: TI, Jun 13, 1996: "Make our hat whiter, theirs blacker"
Daily Doc: Proposed Advertising Strategy to Defeat Measure 70
Title: Proposed Advertising Strategy to Defeat Measure 70
TI, Jun 13, 1996
Bates #: TIOR0020292/0307
June 1, 2000
This document provides a road map of how the tobacco industry defeats initiatives to increase taxes on cigarettes. The document, Proposed Advertising Strategy to Defeat Measure 70, is authored by "Fairness Matters to Oregonians." "Fairness Matters" was a front group headed by Mark Nelson, the campaign director for the Tobacco Institute's Oregon Executive Committee, which was supported through contributions from Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard and the American Tobacco Companies. Nelson also owned a company called Public Affairs Counsel (PAC), which contracted with tobacco companies to defeat ballot measures. In another document, Nelson boasts, "PAC has successfully managed and defeated every anti-tobacco initiative put forward in Oregon since 1988." He also boasts that PAC "lobbies on behalf of RJR and the Southland Corporation."(PM 2062523122/3156, from 1/24/96)
The industry's political strategy regarding such initiatives is specifically aimed at confusing voters, as borne out in the following quotes:
"Make our hat whiter, make their hat blacker. Through involvement in two health care initiatives, blur tobacco's relationship to the health care community."and,
"Create an environment where there are some doctors on our side (of health care reform) and some doctors against us--make voters a little uneasy about who the good guys really are."It also makes clear that prime-time television advertising is of the highest priority in such campaigns, and in the competition for this time, as the document brashly says, "cash is king..." We also notice a secretiveness about disclosing the client who is actually running the ads:
"We cannot determine actual availabilities [of advertising air time] without disclosing our client..."
CITATION
Title: Proposed Advertising Strategy to Defeat Measure 70
Type of Document: Report
Author: Fairness Matters to Oregonians
Date: 19960613
Site: Tobacco Institute http://www.tobaccoinstitute.com/
Page Count 16
Bates No. TIOR0020292/0307
URL: http://www.tobaccoinstitute.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=TIOR0020292/0307
QUOTES
Some of the new approaches we recommend for the Oregon campaign are:
STRATEGY
1. If we can't make voters like us, at least let's make them like our ads. ...Because the messenger (tobacco companies) already has high negative ratings, it makes it doubly difficult to get our message across.
Make advertising that in inherently enjoyable, pretty, localized, humorous, insightful, uplifting....Use affirmative tone while asking for a negative vote.
Speak to the voters' higher motives and beliefs: tolerance and a sense of fairness, rather than their baser interests and concerns....
2. Make our hat whiter, make their hat blacker. Through involvement in two health care initiatives, blur tobacco's relationship to the health care community.
Create an environment where there are some doctors on our side (of health care reform) and some doctors against us--make voters a little uneasy about who the good guys really are. By drawing national insurance companies, physicians and hospital corporations into a multi-million dollar campaign, make it clear that they have profit motives, too. These wealthy interests are the real winners if we increase tobacco taxes in Oregon.
3. The campaign's most urge priority is to guarantee our share of voice.
Competition for coveted advertising slots (60 minutes, Chicago Hope, CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, e.g.) will be ferocious and cash is king... ...We cannot determine actual availabilities [of advertising air time] without disclosing our client...Although these inquiries will likely become know to our opponents and the news media, it will surprise no one that tobacco companies plan to fight the tax; delaying this process only makes it less likely that we can achieve maximum impact in our television ads.
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Anne Landman, Regional Program Coordinator
American Lung Association of Colorado, West Region Office
Grand Junction, CO
(970) 245-2120
afoxland@gj.net
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