THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOBACCO INDUSTRY STRATEGY
THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOBACCO INDUSTRY STRATEGY
Date: June 23, 1982
Source: RJR
--Thanks to Anne Landman for this find--gb.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOBACCO INDUSTRY STRATEGY
I. New Challenges and Changing Needs
II. Elements of Strategy
A. Defensive: Appendix AIII. The Interaction of Strategic Elements
B. Positive: Appendix B ("New Initiatives for Industry Action)
I. New Challenges and Changing Needs
These materials are basic, first draft elements of what we hope will become a unified Tobacco-Institute strategy.
We suggest there is now a fairly urgent need to (a) agree on an over-all strategy; (b) approve certain concepts as its components, and (c) then move ahead and work out the components in detail so that they are tightly planned, concrete sub-programs to a strategy.
The need exists -- and is really urgent -- because
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1. Multiple challenges are arising increasingly in different categories: health, taxes, ingredients, labeling, advertising, product specification, stabilization, and import-export are examples. As new issues are added, the earlier layers do not recede or go away; they continue to grow.
2. Organized adversaries are united for the first time. They are implementing a multi-issue strategy on several fronts simultaneously.
3. Firmly committed supporters are diminishing in the federal and state legislative bodies. More of our natural friends are marginal, frequently with us, but sometimes against us.
4. A positive program is required as a counterpart and to balance our defensive lobbying efforts. It is no longer adequate simply to oppose something.
5. The playing field is being defined and drawn too often by our adversaries. A basic lesson of politics is to develop your own playing field and avoid as much as possible playing on the opposition's playing field.
6. New purposes for the TI now arise with increasing frequency. Originally, the TI had one paramount purpose, the federal health controversy. But it now must serve several purposes simultaneously.
7. Individual company strategies are certainly being considered and developed. The industry association should create and implement a strategy which both complements and supplements member company strategies.
Three criteria should be observed in the evolution of strategy:
- It must have both defensive and positive elements and they should be complementary;
- The over-all strategy should look toward two results: success, and the evolution of a full-service industry association in the process; and,
- TI resources should be mobilized according to a precise plan to effectuate all elements of strategy.
Defensively, there must always be a capability to react to new and sometimes unforeseen circumstances. A primary strategic objective should be to reduce the amount of pure reaction required, but equally, a certain degree of reaction is the primary criterion for strategic defensive preparation.
2. Appendix A describes in detail the anti-tobacco program, multifaceted and multi-issue in nature, which the coalition of adversary organizations have developed. Opposite each component of the adversary program in Appendix A is the proposed basic response of the TI. Over a period of time, these responses will be developed further, refined, and made more specific. For the moment, they are given as general strategic responses to multiple attacks.
3. The adversary coalition has included nearly every form of attack imaginable in its strategy. Several of these adversary issues are arising independently of coalition planning, springing up on their own. The sub-programs being developed to counteract the coalition strategy will therefore be equally useful in meeting similar attacks which develop from other quarters.
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B. Elements of Positive Strategy:
New Initiatives for Industry Action
The entire tobacco industry is subject to negative press, adverse legislation and criticism from the public-at-large. To counteract this negative image and to demonstrate to the public that we are a responsible industry and are capable of looking beyond our own interests, we have developed an outline of several public service programs for industry consideration. They are described in detail in Appendix B.
The Tobacco Institute is proposing the expansion of the tobacco industry's involvement in public service and social affairs. Our objectives for public involvement are:
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1. To receive broad recognition for responsible public service, i.e. to offset the notion that we place profitability above public welfare.
2. To be viewed as constructively addressing tobacco-related issues of public concern.
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The potential positive outcomes of adopting programs of this nature may be:
- increased goodwill and reputation of the tobacco industry.
- strengthening of social and economic systems in which the industry operates.
- the ability to affect the problem areas that most concern the tobacco industry and simultaneously obtain tax benefits.
- a more sophisticated understanding by government regulators of the needs/behaviors of industry. For example, a program to discourage teens from smoking (an adult decision) might prevent or delay further regulation of the tobacco industry. A fire safety program which emphasizes precautions against all potential fire hazards would demonstrate the industry's concern for public safety.
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1. Programs must be related to our business -- perhaps not in obvious direct ways. As in all investments there should be a return on this one.
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2. Programs must demonstrate -- not just verbalize -- the industry's commitment to public service.
3. Programs must help us develop new political and business relationships, i.e. build further alliances.
4. Programs must be consistent with all legitimate legal and poltical (sic) strategies.
The first two programs in Appendix B -- involving fire safety and teenage smoking -- are, in our estimation, important subjects for estimation, industry involvement, and address immediate concerns.
The following long range programs should be regarded as indicative of the type of general public service programming the industry could assume, The ideas might well prompt other creative approaches. The programs can be launched quickly, but can be ongoing and can have long term benefits. These outlined programs, again described in Appendix B, are to:
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- support an alternative health research charity.
- participate in national and community-based job training and job placement!
- provide services to handicapped children and their families.
- educate young Americans about parenting responsibilities and provide services for pregnant teenagers, young parents and their children.
- assist in health science education.
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This draft of a proposed industry strategy has been designed to become evolutionary, articulated in more specific detail as it develops, and is refined. All of these steps are directed toward assuring the interaction of both defensive and positive elements.
For the Executive Committeee (sic) the adoption of this concept will require some increase in policy-making commitment and oversight of a comprehensive strategy.
At this point, the initial steps are (a) a decision to develop such an over-all strategy; (b) selections of specific programs from Appendix B as its components, and (c) approval for the TI to move ahead to plan strategic sub-programs with appropriate delivery mechanisms in greater detail.
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APPENDIX A
ELEMENTS OF DEFENSIVE STRATEGY
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COALITION PROPOSALS FOR FEDERAL INITIATIVES AGAINST TOBACCO
TI/INDUSTRY ACTION
o Congress should triple or quadruple the cigarette excise to meet inflation of the past 30 years and to fund a major anti-smoking information/education effort.
o TI is producing a backgrounder on the effects of increased taxes on the average one-smoker and two-smoker family based on the various current proposals , including the 3-to-4-fold hike, the graduated T&N-based tax ACS has heretofore recommended and those raises specified in pending bills. The influence of each will be computed for the Consumer Price Index and the various contracts and payments tied to the CPI. TI will restructure backgrounder into a position paper for government liaison, in addition to studies prepared earlier this year on federal excise increases.
UICC and past ACS positions have favored graduated T&N taxes. The 1977 ACS citizens advisory group recommended higher taxes to be collected by the federal government only, thus forestalling bootlegging. In the present climate, the industry must be prepared to fight any increase of any sort, especially in light of Birch Bayh's report to an ACS advisory group in late January that he's convinced a tax increase can pass in 1982. Our analyses will be completed as swiftly as possible and will include full details of the faults and problems of the graduated T&N tax in effect for several years in New York City.
o Congress should enact the Waxman and/or Hatch-Packwood legislation, add a label on "the changing cigarette" and require on packs and in advertising the quantity and identity of all additives by their common names.
o TI should continue its efforts to fight these bills based on the industry's December 1,981 filing on the FTC staff report, stressing awareness and First Amendment implications.
o TI should continue discussions with the Assistant Secretary on disclosure of cigarette ingredients and at every opportunity emphasize that official's pleasure at industry cooperation.
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o TI must be alert to further FTC staff recommendations, because the original report indicated that after public comments, staff would get back to the commission "with further recommendation as to whether additional or formal commission action is necessary and appropriate.
o Congress should establish office of Smoking and Health by statute and assure adequate longterm funding for:
o TI must be alert to changes in the Administration stand on the Waxman and Hatch-Packwood bills.
o dissemination of scientific information about smoking, including the annual Surgeon General's report.
o TI must be prepared to counter each new report, gathering advance information on report topic, as in 1982, and assigning staff, counsel or outside counsultants (sic) to preparation of an appropriate review the project to be directed by TI's scientific staff. Staff planning session looking toward 1983 report will be held soon.
o counter advertising and media initiatives aimed at high risk groups like children, women, minorities and "groups for whom smoking represents a greatly increased risk of illness and death".
o TI must continue its advertising in an effort to counter what can only be public service ads/commercials. The voluntaries don't buy time or space and in the present climate, the federal government will hardly do so. Meanwhile, speed up efforts on' a campaign to persuade youth not to take up or continue smoking.
o Congress should make the industry "responsible for demonstrating the safety of cigarette additives".
o TI must continue its discussions with government on additives and plan announcement of arrangements with HHS on completion of negotiations, meantime watching to see what the voluntaries' coalition has in mind, if indeed, anything specific was meant.
o Congress should expand and strengthen federal programs of prevention, education and information, including:
o requiring a postage stamp on smoking hazards
o TI must, at the first indication this is in the works, muster Congressional forces to nip it in the bud, much as it worked a dozen years ago to get the "100,000 doctors" signs off post office trucks.
o requiring anti-smoking information on federal payroll checks
o See above
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503908112o requiring anti-smoking information on federal payroll checks
o See above
o requiring anti-smoking "hand-outs in unemployment and other government offices with access to the public"
o See above
o requiring slogan "Smoking is dangerous to your health" on government forms and stationery
o See above -- Point must be made on all these initiatives that they make the Congress look rather foolish at a time when there are more important national matters with which to deal.
o Congress should eliminate tobacco price supports and inclusion of tobacco under Food for Peace program.
o TI must support the rest of the industry.
o Congress should enact legislation (such as Cranston's) requiring cigarettes made or sold in the U.S. be "self-extinguishing".
o TI must speed up its efforts to design and implement a fire safety program and to publicize it.
o Congress should create tax incentives to encourage industry to develop "smoke-free work areas" and smoking prevention programs, especially in those industries where "occupational exposure increases the risk from smoking".
o TI must be alert to indications of such action, although there would appear to be little chance, in the present climate, of such tax breaks. TI must continue to point out the lack of attention paid by the anti-smoking community to workplace exposures and their implications in development of the chronic diseases blamed on smoking. TI must also hasten study to refute claims of economic, benefits of workplace smoking restrictions.
o Health and Human Services should moniter (sic) the federal block grant program for preventive services, including smoking and health and school health programs, then re store categorical prevention programs, including smoking and health, if after two years a diminution of preventive services is determined.
o TI must respond, if necessary, that HHS has no such authority and would be bucking the Reagan philosophy if it is so recommended.
o Defense should promulgate a new rule forbidding cigarettes be sold by Defense installations at rates lower than the average prevailing in the surrounding area.
o Industry must be alert to and resist such a move. Federal law prohibits levying federal or state taxes on such cigarettes.
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503908113o The Executive Branch should support the HHS requirement that all grantees and contract institutions adopt in principle HHS standards for protection of nonsmokers (e.g., no smoking in elevators, conference rooms and other public areas) and assure no-smoking areas in cafeterias.
o TI must be alert to the possibility of such action (witness the no-smoking rules announced recently by an assistant-secretary at Agriculture and then withdrawn) but there would appear to be little chance of Administration .support for such proposals.
o Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches should set examples as employers and adopt "reasonable" standards on workplace smoking and by providing smoking education and cessation programs.
o TI be (sic) must work with all its federal contacts to have early warning of the adoption of any such policies, continuing to point out that this is not a proper area .for government.
o MIS should include budget line items for school health education programs and develop guidelines jointly with Department of Education, PHS and others to assure implementation.
o There would appear to be little chance of this occurring in these stringent budget days but TI must remain alert to the absolute honesty of any such programs that might be developed.
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503908114COALITION PROPOSALS FOR HOSPITAL INITIATIVES AGAINST TOBACCO
TI/INDUSTRY ACTION
Hospital administration and medical staff commitment and board approval should be gained for a smoking policy and implementation plan, to include:
o cooperation with community agencies on stop-smoking clinics and other programs to reduce and eliminate smoking
o TI must continue to promote its freedom of choice position as a means of protecting privileges of workers or patients.
o development, with evaluation planned, of education programs for patients, employees, medical staff, volunteers and their families as well as the public
o See above
o collection of a data base on hospital-based smoking programs and policies
o See above
o lobbying national and regional hospital associations to encourage members to take action to reduce smoking
o See above
o working with the voluntaries to get insurance carriers to "provide reimbursement or other positive incentives for strong hospital-based smoking programs"
o TI must keep record of any insurance carriers who do provide such incentives (along with those offering nonsmoker insurance), and industry must be prepared to take appropriate action.
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503908115COALITION PROPOSALS FOR PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION INITIATIVES AGAINST TOBACCO
TI/INDUSTRY ACTION
o Voluntary health associations should promote professional education against smoking among key medical organizations, including primary care physicians, nurses and allied health and professional personnel, medical schools and private practitioner groups, with both theoretical and practical materials, including referral networks.
o TI must monitor any final recommendations from the blue print meeting and be prepared to keep any such "profes sional education" programs honest, simultaneously pointing out that individual smoking advice should come from health professionals.
o These professionals should persuade patients not to smoke, using primary care and specialty settings such as prenatal clinics and in family practice.
o TI must continue to work on programs, such as communications on the pregnancy question, to get across the idea that there are many product-related aspects of behavior on which people should listen objectively to the advice of their personal physicians, especially if their health is already compromised.
o Physicians should be encouraged to become more involved in assisting patients to quit, armed with information about relative risks, especially those involving "the changing cigarette."
o TI must prepare and use a backgrounder explaining the derivation of such relative risk data and-the irrelavancy (sic) of data like this to individuals.
o These professionals should be encouraged to convey the idea of smokers at high risk, "in numerical and dramatic terms for any smoking in order to more effectively channel intervention".
o See above
o Teacher preparation programs should be required to show that teachers of health education are prepared according to nationally recognized standards (not now in existence).
o TI and industry surely must agree that health teachers be adequately prepared and must insist that any such standards reflect an honest stand on all health controversies. A better reaction can be prepared for the industry when final blueprint recommendations are made.
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503908116COALITION PROPOSALS FOR PUBLIC INFORMATION INITIATIVES AGAINST TOBACCO
TI/INDUSTRY ACTION
o The voluntaries and their coalition should build a "public relations campaign" to accomplish elimination of human models in cigarette advertising.
o TI and the advertising industry must resist "tombstone" restrictions and use testimony developed for the Waxman, Hatch and Packwood record to show that advertising does not affect sales but market share only, and that tasteful advertising within the limits of the former cigarette advertising code is a First Amendment right.
o A similar campaign should reaffirm the conclusions of the 1981 Surgeon General's report: evidence of a modest reduction in lung cancer risk, no evidence of such in CHD, COPD and pregnancy effects with use of the "changing cigarette". (Ernst Wynder's group recommended a joint government/voluntary committee to plan and launch these campaigns.)
o TI must use every resource to develop data on smoking-related disease incidence as distinguished from mortality as emphasized in the 1981 Surgeon General's report. This may show that changes in disease incidence do not coincide with changes in smoking patterns.
o Voluntary health groups (and the national coalition) should work with OSH on a campaign to reach minorities.
o TI must monitor any such campaigns, as it does any statements of the opposition, to keep them honest through letters to the editor, speaker appearances and publications and should follow through on translation of our basic documents (Most Asked Questions and any individual disease booklets/folders) into Spanish, at the least.
o They should develop and publicize procedures by which smokers can evaluate themselves as being at high risk, conveying the concept of risk odds, the bigger and more dramatic terms the better.
o If such projects appear TI must attack directly on lack of merit.
o The coalition and all its members should place high priority on use of mass media to motivate and assist quitters, especially through use of "significant others" (one participant kept referring to "silver bullets"), whose messages can influence large audience segments -- health professionals, community workers, clergy, involved peers.
o Time and space must still be donated, as the voluntaries have never spent money for either, just production of materials. If the coalition -- or the federal government -- spends money to place ads, TI and industry must point out the misplaced priorities in today's world. Depending on the themes of any campaigns, TI can respond in proper tone and must endeavor to keep the opposition honest.
o They should organize ex-smoker and other support, using " newly developed longterm maintenance techniques from the literature to prevent relapse, change to healthy lifestyle".
o No involvement for TI if freedom of choice is preserved.
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503908117The voluntaries and their coalition should enlist media cooperation for:
o increased prime time PSAs on cessation
o TI must urge same media to use TI PSAs on other subjects.
o building anti-smoking messages into Hollywood films (working with Screen Actors Guild, etc.)
o If no more than before, little problem. ACS has been talking about this for years.
o increased participation on radio and TV talk shows
o TI must do likewise, promoting speaker appearances with distribution of TI publications and continuing speaker advertising in media trade and club periodicals that stresses our availability, especially to confront the opposition. New medical spokesperson should be retained by TI to help with this. -
o use of anti-smoking episodes on situation comedies and soap operas
o Touted by the ACS for years, this concept has had limited success. Situation should be monitored, however, to determine whether a presentation on the gaps in knowledge in the smoking controversy should be used with network clearance departments. Anything involving cessation which intrudes on freedom of choice must in protested by TI. I
o increased editorial space for anti-smoking messages (working with American Society of Magazine Editors)
o Little chance of success, but TI must monitor the situation to determine whether a presentation should be made to that editorial group.
o They should check on the cooperation of the print media with research by (Elizabeth Whelan's) American Council on Science and Health, for content and frequency.
o TI must make sure the print media are aware of this. Whelan has already made the back of more than one magazine editor go up at reports of her "surveys". Publishers should be interested, too.
o "Make a film which is a parody of tobacco situations."
o TI must be prepared to meet this with "Common Sense" and other devices as warranted.
o Concentration in the quit-smoking area should be on self-help campaigns.
o No action called for from TI in light of present positions, unless freedom of choice is abridged.
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503908118o The Great American Smokeout (formerly just an ACS event) should be extended through ad campaigns beforehand, a telethon on the big day, follow-up serialized columns and daily radio and TV messages on cessation maintenance and a nonsmoker day six months later.
o TI must continue to point up the money-squandering aspect, definitely utilizing the recent estimate of SmokEnders' Jacqueline Rogers that the smoking cessation industry is worth $100 million annually in goods and services bought.
.o "Evaluation should be a core component in all program activities."
o TI must point out that this is a grand idea, the least that the voluntaries can do for their contributors and wonder if they've ever done it before. Allusion could be made to the groups' endorsement of rotational warnings, without proper evaluation of the effects through advance research.
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503908119COALITION PROPOSALS FOR RESEARCH INITIATIVES AND DIRECTIONS
TI/INDUSTRY ACTION
o The voluntaries should by January 1983 have in place a new nongovernmental center on smoking and health. (One group recommended formation of a National Coordinating Committee on Smoking Research and Control but left its mission, makeup and funding to senior leadership of the voluntaries.)
o Industry must decide whether company scientists can participate as observers, as they did with the now defunct Tobacco Working Group of the National Cancer Institute, their expertise well appreciated by government and the anti-smoking research community.
o The new national center should conduct surveillance of and research on "the changing cigarette," especially very low yield brands, for development of a national information campaign about "the changing cigarette" and the "limitations in reduced risk reflected by the Surgeon General's [19811 conclusions".
o TI must do the same, although in this fiscal climate there appears little chance of a campaign of the scale suggested by the Heart Institute's former director, who touted the government's highly successful National High Blood Pressure Education Program and the accompanying demonstration and control projects. (one estimate of these federal programs: They've cost the taxpayers some $100 million since 1972.)
o It should develop "new parameters for measuring smoke delivery" so government or voluntary agency guidelines can be established for reducing delivery of selected components. (One work group also called for immediate establishment of a national advisory group on delivery of smoke components but failed to say what it should do.)
o See above
o The center should acquire enough data so standards could be set for reduction of sidestream emissions as well.
o See above
o It should develop and promote use of ongoing collection of reliable, standardized data on smoking habits, attitudes and risks, should standardize and promote use of existing population study data and support increased collection of and accessibility to National Center for Health Statistics data -- all to allow exchange of data and support of tobacco-related research by multiple agencies.
o See above
o It should conduct "qualitative analysis" of tar delivered by "the changing cigarette".
o See above
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5039081200 The national center should develop funding and administrative support while promoting, with government, more support for training and career development in research at all career levels and urge affiliates of all voluntaries to establish lectureships and other sponsored programs with professional schools and societies.
o The industry should support this in principle as being in line with its long-standing position that only further well-designed research is going to answer the questions posed by the smoking and health controversy.
o Conferees should bring high priority research areas to the attention of HHS, the voluntaries and the research community, specifically:
"Interactions of genetic, environmental and other exposures with smoking
"The effects of involuntary smoking
"The mechanisms of disease production
"The impact of changing tobacco usage"
o TI must continue to point out that more research is needed as well on other suspected causes of the disease for which cigarettes are blamed and especially on the third "high priority" area here, the mechanisms of disease production.
o Research proposals in CHO, COPD and pregnancy effects and of the human health effects of "the changing cigarette" on smokers and involuntary smokers should be actively solicited. (The working group did not say by whom or who should pay.)
o See above
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503908121COALITION PROPOSALS FOR WORKPLACE SMOKING CONTROL INITIATIVES
TI/INDUSTRY ACTION
Voluntaries and National Coalition should strive to reduce smoking at work by increasing the number of employers with smoking control programs and policies; to reduce employer smoking-related costs; and to meet health needs of employees and their dependents, by working with management and labor to:
o create and promote a model corporate policy on smoking control.
o TI must utilize all means to reiterate industry position that the employer knows best how to meet the needs and comforts of his workers and customer that a fair-minded and practical businessman must make up his own mind rather than being forced by law to deal with what may not even be a problem.
o TI must speed up the planned pilot survey with the National Restaurant Assn. and subsequent use of the data as outlined in New Directions memo of 12/4/81.
o TI must utilize Outreach to sway employers against unjustified and unnecessary action on workplace smoking.
o TI must expand the use of "Common Sense' " film and hasten production of a new film on smoking and health, including reference to possible workplace problems.
o TI must continue to promote and publicize criticism of bad science such as Repace and White-Froeb, per New Directions memo of 12/4/81.
o TI has begun through (sic?) staff assignment refutation of the William Weis "study" of smoking employee cost to his boss.
o TI administration must assign immediately responsibility for collecting corporate "smoking control policies" gathered in the field or otherwise obtained, for appropriate response, demonstrating that objective cost/benefit analysis does not work for anti-smokers.
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503908122o Develop information and incentive strategies for involving organizational leaders (undefined) in smoking control programs, including a cost/benefit analysis of such programs by an expert task force.
o TI must be prepared, through in-house assignment or if necessary working with consultants, to refute the methodology and credibility of any study of the "costs and benefits" of smoking control programs and policies.
o Initiate a public relations campaign involving the (still undefined) organizational leaders.
o See above -- TI must also await further definition of voluntaries' proposed action in final blueprint report.
o Distribute national standards on smoking control programs to encourage employers to use a wide range of approaches, incorporation of prevention in health professional curricula and of responsibility for prevention into health professional job descriptions.
o See above
o Encourage all branches of government to take exemplar roles in restricting smoking among their employees and to provide anti-smoking education and cessation programs.
o See above -- TI must also continue to work with unions I protect the rights of the smoking worker, pointing out that the happy worker is more productive and that greater productivity is obviously necessary in private as well as public sector in today's climate.
o Identify and proselytize smokers at high risk because of occupational exposure, documenting that they have been informed "and emphasizing control both of occupational and cigarette smoking hazards".
o If this recommendation appears in the final blueprint, TI and its allies must take every opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of this position and the voluntaries' failure until very recently to even acknowledge any problem in workplace exposures.
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503908123COALITION PROPOSALS FOR STATE AND LOCAL INITIATIVES AGAINST TOBACCO
TI/INDUSTRY ACTION
o States should enact clean indoor air laws to limit the smoking of tobacco products in the workplace and all places visited by the general public.
o TI must hasten its promotion of smoking restriction waivers as outlined in the 12/4/81 New Directions memo.
o Local school health education curricula should emphasize the health, social and economic consequences of smoking.
o TI must speed up planning and implementation of a campaign to discourage youth smoking.
o States should give top priority to legislation allowing the sale of only "self-extinguishing" cigarettes.
o TI must resist such legislation while it completes and speeds into being its proposed fire safety program.
o School boards and local governments should prohibit smok ing by anyone on public school property.
o TI must continue to insist that school smoking rules are a matter of local Judgment respecting freedom of choice, and should not be subject to pressures of national organizations.
o State education certifying bodies should ensure that health education is an integral part of elementary certification and require specific certification of all secondary teachers of health education.
0 TI must try to reach and ally these group's through a campaign to discourage youth smoking. It must also monitor any national moves toward standardizing certification and keep an eye on so-called smoking education.
o School authorities should encourage community participation in their nonsmoking and comprehensive health education efforts, using youth and parents in planning and implementation.
o TI must hasten to implement a proposed youth campaign.
o States should establish mechanisms to assess health education teacher qualifications and to establish accessible in-service training programs to meet perceived needs.
o See all of above
o State and local coalitions should "work to enact legislation and other initiatives as specified, and any such other actions consistent with the local political climate".
o TI must develop proper and sufficient materials for the field forces.
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503908124APPENDIX B:
ELEMENTS OF POSITIVE STRATEGY
NEW INITIATIVES FOR INDUSTRY ACTION
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503908126
Summary
The prevention and the fighting of fires is principally a matter of public safety.
But it is the nature of fire to produce controversy, heroes, culprits and victims. Fire is often the focus of politicians and journalists assigning blame, scientists attempting to establish cause, educators hoping to promote public awareness, labor officials seeking more resources, and volunteers seeking more volunteers. Insurance companies lead a wide range of businesses concerned about the property and lives lost to fire.
With all of the attention afforded fire in this country, it is remarkable that the United States has the highest fire death rate of virtually any nation on earth.
Of the many causes of fire, careless cigarette smoking seems to have increasingly caught the attention of politicians and journalists. The solution they and some fire officials propose is the creation of a self-extinguishing cigarette. Bills have been submitted at the federal level and in several state legislatures. As an issue, cigarette-related fires continue to rise in prominence.
The irony is that as a category, cigarette-related fires have apparently decreased by 20 percent in the last three years -- a statistic expected to be released this Spring by federal officials. But even with that downward trend, it is unlikely that the issue will go away by itself: anti-smokers have targeted self-extinguishing legislation as a national priority. And with some fire officials behind them, the anti-smokers stand a fair chance of succeeding with some of these proposals.
To date, the industry response has been twofold:
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1. The industry has said it can not make a self-extinguishing cigarette without unduly affecting the nature of the product; and that some substances will ignite with even a casual brush with a lit cigarette.
2. The industry had also worked with the nation's furniture manufacturers to promote fire resistant furniture. But substantial work still needs to be done in that area.
Fire Safety Education
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Neither industry response has been particularly effective in offsetting fire scarred victims interviewed by the news media and paraded before legislative committees.
A strong, visible, positive tobacco industry effort -- at this time -- is needed to reverse the trend toward self-extinguishing cigarette legislation.
There are three factors which suggest that firefighters would be willing to work with us.
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1. With the phasing out of the U.S. Fire Safety Administration, firefighters have lost a major national voice in the effort to diminish accidental fire losses.
2. Public funds are growing scarce. Firefighters must compete vigorously for financial support. There is, in fact, a substantial need for suitable equipment and fire retardant clothing.
3. Firefighters are not anti-smokers per se. They are legitimately concerned about fire safety and should respond favorably to an effective program of fire safety proposed by the tobacco industry.
Possible Industry Efforts
The industry's efforts could have three parts:
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1. Fire Safety Education
Cigarettes are one of a vast number of consumer products which if used carelessly can cause fires. A national campaign built around that concept and conducted in cooperation with major national firefighting groups* and local fire departments would establish the industry as actively dealing with the issue.
By way of an example, we would suggest the following:
The campaign would feature a calendar. Each month would, in turn, display the fire hazards most typically found at that time of year. In that way, consumers would be reminded -- say, in December -- to decorate their Christmas tree safely, ensure a clean chimney, check their wood burning stove, and look out for inebriated friends with cigarettes at holiday parties. Each month would feature a different set of safety reminders.
*We could work with the National Fire Protection Association and its 31,000 members; the International Association of Fire Chiefs and its 7,200 members; the International Association of Firefighters, a union with 175,000 members; and/or the Foundation for Fire Safety which serves as the firefighting industry's research component.
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Fire Safety Education
Page 3
The campaign would have as its theme:- "The Tobacco Institute and your local fire department bring you a safe (December)."
The calendar might be distributed as a cooperative venture by local TAN groups and fire departments. Additionally, at the beginning of each month, the appropriate page of the calendar would be run as a full page advertisement in local newspapers. Local radio promotional messages would tell listeners to look for the advertisement/calendar page.
In this format the program could continue locally for some time all the while building localized relationships with rank and file firefighters.
2. Support of Firefighters
While firefighters are greatly concerned about safety, they are at least equally concerned about job security, the quality of their equipment and the advancement of what they call "fire-matics" -the knowledge of fire.
The industry could play a somewhat low key role in helping firefighters in such areas.
For example:
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a. Many local fire departments rely on volunteer manpower. An industry-developed volunteer recruitment campaign could be made available in kit form and presented state by state to the chiefs of volunteer departments. Again, this could be conducted in cooperation with a major national firefighting group.
b. The industry could fund a study to determine why cigarette-caused fires are on the decrease -- in the hope that, by identifying the factors involved, the downward trend could continue. This study could be conducted by one of the major national firefighting groups cooperating in other ways with the industry.
c. The industry could support a study of the factors resulting in a lower incidence of accidental fires in Europe than in the United States. The purpose would be to illustrate the importance of effective public education activities.
d. The industry should continue to work with the furniture manufacturers to promote the use of fire resistant fabrics.
Summary
Teenage smoking: despite reports that it is on the decline, it continues to grow as an issue.
The tobacco industry says it does not want youngsters to smoke.
But our critics say we do: that our advertising is geared to glamorize smoking and to presenting it to children as an adult thing to do. About a third of all Americans agree.
So do various government officials. In its staff report on cigarette advertising, the Federal Trade Commission berated the industry for not better regulating itself in this area. "Unlike the liquor industry, cigarette manufacturers have never produced an advertisement discouraging use of their product by young people and children," the report complained.' An industry advertising code adopted in 1964 to deal with the issue of children and smoking was called "loosely enforced" and "ineffective" in that same report.
Federal and local legislation has been proposed to deal with the issue. And, naturally, anti-smoking groups have spent a good deal of time and money discouraging youngsters from smoking. Saturday morning television -- aimed largely at small children -- even carries anti-smoking messages: some featuring Star Wars and cartoon characters.
Despite the tobacco industry's repeated assertions against teenage smoking, we continue to be seen as the problem -- and certainly not part of the solution. Our critics argue that the industry's future customers are now in their teenage years -- that the tobacco industry understands that to discourage them from smoking now could have serious financial implications in the future.
Anti-smokers also argue that the industry refuses to acknowledge the "best" reasons for youngsters not smoking: "that smoking is dangerous and addictive."
Possible Industry Efforts
In order to offset further erosion of the industry's image in this area, and to avoid further legislative forays, the tobacco industry should take two actions:
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Responsible Living
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1. Clearly and visibly announce our position on teenage smoking to the public generally and to leaders of all youth-oriented organizations.
A national advertisement -- possibly one installment of our national campaign -- should state even more clearly than we have, our position against teenagers smoking, and announce our intentions to actively discourage teenagers from smoking. (See Program 2)
This advertisement, in reprint form, would then be sent with appropriate cover letters to federal and state elected and appointed officials, and to the adult leadership of programs directed at children, i.e., scouts, schools, athletics, churches, daycare etc.
2. A program to depict cigarette smoking as one of many activities some people choose to do as adults.
The theme "responsible living" is embraced by many educators as an effective way of establishing positive role models for children.
In essence, the approach emphasizes that youngsters must assume responsibility for the way they act -- accepting the fact that certain activities are culturally reserved for adults.
Voting, driving a car, drinking alcoholic beverages, marriage, having children and smoking all fall in this category. All are matters of personal choice -- to be engaged in by informed, mature people.
An industry program along this line would be conducted in close cooperation with major national educational organizations and would be directly supportive of their existing "responsible living" programs.
Our support would include the provision of high quality advertising and communication materials and kits for local educators to initiate "responsible living" programs.
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Summary
The large voluntary health associations and other non-profit health institutions are much the same as any marketing-oriented corporation.
Instead of consumer products, they sell the assurance that someone is doing something about various dread diseases. Instead of mass communication, they utilize mass involvement -- much the same as Fuller Brush or Avon does with local, door-to-door sales. And just as a consumer goods company sells the uniqueness of its product, the voluntary associations sell their uniqueness as the funnels through which funds and effort will be directed to conquer disease.
It is an effective approach -- but one which requires large expenditures for promotion, the maintenance of local offices and staff, travel and a wide range of other items not in the least related to meaningful medical research and treatment.
The fact that the tobacco industry has spent more on smoking and health research than the voluntary health associations who talk so much about it may say more about the health associations than our industry.
Yet there are many health research organizations which conduct themselves differently. They may be associated with single institutions, such as the Vincent T. Lombardi Cancer Research Center at Georgetown University, or St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. A common factor is that they need and deserve promotional assistance.
An example is the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Fund which operates so quietly that it is virtually unknown to many Americans. It was organized to ensure that all fund-raising is for the sole purpose of supporting research. Administrative costs are handled through a separate endowment. Some funds are raised through a theater ticket service and investments -- but the majority of the money is donated by large corporations.
The Fund's Board of Directors and its advisory committees are peopled with well known persons in the fields of business, entertainment, the news media and health, including some who personally oppose smoking. Bob Hope is honorary chairman of the board; actor John Ritter, columnist Jimmy Breslin, radio commentator Jack O'Brien, football coach Darrell Royal and former Secretary of the Treasury William Simon all are active, as is Charles LeMaistre who recently testified in personal support of the Hatch bill.
The tobacco industry has already expressed financial and other support to the Fund -- largely because of the Fund's dedication to finding answers to the questions about cancer, and because of its strict avoidance of propaganda regarding cancer "causes." But a broader, more visible tobacco industry involvement would achieve several things:
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The Alternative Charity
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- it would demonstrate our strong interest in finding answers. Unlike the Council for Tobacco Research, the Fund could only be perceived as being independent..
- it would allow us to work with key members of the news media and entertainment business -- both of which have been targeted by anti-smokers for efforts against the industry.
- it would help us develop stronger relationships with other industries facing similar criticism, i.e. the chemical companies.
- from a general image standpoint, it would deal directly with the issue that most Americans feel we are avoiding: smoking and health.
The industry 's support of Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Fund or any other charity which meets our criteria would have these components:
I. Use of TAN to assist the charity with its fundraising effort.
This effort, undertaken with proper promotion would help build awareness of the charity, awareness of our support for it.
II. Assist the charity to expand its base of entertainers and news media people to raise public awareness.
To return to our example, the Fund has its origins in a spontaneous public plea made by radio commentator Walter Winchell shortly after the death of his friend, Damon Runyon. The result was a public outpouring of funds -- caused largely by widespread fondness of both Winchell and Runyon. In the intervening years, the two names have fallen from public recognition. It would be appropriate -- and useful to the Fund -- to reacquaint the public with these two accomplished men. And it would be effective and appropriate to have journalists and entertainers conduct the reacquainting.
This effort could be initiated by a telethon, hosted by Bob Hope and John Ritter (see above) and other celebrities recruited for the event. Afterwards, a round of special appearances might be orchestrated to further the cause.
503908134
Summary
The tobacco industry makes an important contribution to every state's economy -- from the smallest, Rhode Island, where tobacco contributes 7,200 jobs, to some of the largest states like California where one of every 43 jobs is tobacco-related. Tobacco contributed $56.7 billion to the nation's economy in 1979, nearly 2.4% of the U.S. gross national product. Because of the American tobacco industry and its related products and services, over 2 million people have jobs. These data, taken from the national Wharton study and The Tobacco Institute's records, show the tremendous contribution the tobacco industry makes to the American economy.
The industry's importance and commitment to the economy could be further emphasized by a program of voluntarism, particularly in job training programs. Providing job training for the unemployed is one area of social involvement which would enable the industry to match the social need (job training) to the industry's expertise and its ability to help. There are several kinds of programs the industry could implement, all of which would fall under the "Tobacco Means Jobs" umbrella.
Possible Industry Efforts
1. While some federally-supported job programs have been eliminated, one federal program that has proven its value is the Department of Labor's Job Corps Program. A nationwide network of Job Corps Centers is operated by several for-profit corporations (RCA, ITT, Singer and Teledyne, for example) under contract with the Department of Labor. The Job Corps admits hard-core unemployed youth, aged 16-22 and offers a program of vocational education and work experiences coupled with education courses leading to a GED degree (high school equivalency). Job Corps Centers also provide residential living experiences for these young people. At present several unions, e.g. The Brotherhood of Railroad and Airways Carriers (BRAC) and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), provide some Job Corps Centers with instructors and resources to train youth who want to enter their industries. Upon completion of the curriculum, the Corpsmembers are placed in a "real life" work situation.
The tobacco industry could establish a training program designed specifically for work in the industry. Industry would develop the appropriate training curriculum and provide an instructor for one Job Corps Center in Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. The program could be based on the Xerox model: company personnel would be "on sabbatical" for one or-two years at a Center.
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Tobacco Means Jobs
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Different tobacco companies would-supply instructors in the various states. When Corpsmembers completed the program they could be placed in factories of the instructor-sponsor company. This type of job training program could be designed for tobacco or nontobacco company operations.
2. A separate program designed to re-tool the American workforce, i.e. those that are skilled in outmoded, unemployable areas could also demonstrate the industry's commitment to the President's program and the people of this nation. The program might involve re-training in areas that aren't exclusively tobacco-related, but where factory operations may have a need, e.g. data processing.
3. Another job-related program could be the establishment of local summer job clearinghouses for teenagers and college-age young people. The tobacco industry could provide personnel and other resources to facilitate the matching of job seekers with summer jobs. Since the tobacco companies have a highly visible presence in their communities, they could be a natural conduit/clearinghouse for job information throughout the area.
The tobacco industry's commitment to America's economic good health could be demonstrated in several other ways:
4. sponsorship of local Junior Achievement programs.
5. scholarship programs for minority youth or agriculture students who want to grow tobacco or students who want to pursue research in the area of reduction of tar and nicotine.
6. sponsorship of a community-based series in the tobacco states where tobacco industry personnel talk to citizen groups about career opportunities in the tobacco industry. In addition, a film could be produced showing the different types of jobs in the tobacco industry -- from farm to auction to manufacturing facility.
In tandem with the adoption/implementation of a job training program, a national communications campaign could further demonstrate that "Tobacco Means Jobs." The campaign could use the readily available data from the Wharton study and from The Tobacco Institute to show how many people the industry directly employs and how many jobs result from the multiplying effect, i.e. tobacco's indirect impact. Indeed, the data are conclusive; the public should know "Tobacco does mean Jobs."
503908136
WORKING WITH THE HANDICAPPED
Summary
There are more than 4 million handicapped children between the ages of 3 and 21 in the United States. Even this estimate, however, is a conservative one because of the countless, unnumbered handicapped infants, children and young adults who have not been identified, - screened, diagnosed or treated for their condition. Handicaps take many forms, both physical and mental. Speech and hearing impairments, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, mental retardation, visual impairments, diabetes, learning disabilities and epilepsy are only some of the many disorders which may affect a young person's ability to function in our society. Yet despite a handicap, these youngsters are more like "normal" children than they are different. Despite a physical handicap, a child may indeed be intellectually gifted. Despite a handicap, a child is still likely to have a family with many of the day-to-day needs of all American families.
Possible Industry Efforts
Completely independent of any relationship to tobacco, the industry could assume a role of leadership in this country, working with existing voluntary organizations in the field, in providing assistance to handicapped children and their families and to all Americans in understanding more fully about the handicapped.
Such help could take many forms.
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1. Through support to facilities which provide treatment and care for the handicapped, the industry could be directly responsible for helping children to live productive and full lives.
2. Through projects which educate other Americans, and children in particular, about the handicapped, the industry could be at the vanguard of efforts to create a greater public awareness and understanding of all human needs.
3. Through a special program to identify and aid handicapped youngsters who are "gifted and talented," the industry could assume a role which is not currently being met. (A project to help serve the gifted handicapped in Chapel Hill, North Carolina was forced recently to close because federal funds from the Department of Education are no longer available.)
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TEENAGE PREGNANCY
Summary
Early childbearing poses serious health, social, educational and economic consequences for teenage parents, their children and society. Despite efforts at public information and education, more than a million American girls between the ages of 15 and 19 will become pregnant in the next year -- one in ten adolescent females-and almost 600,000 will give birth. The birth of a child should be an opportunity for great celebration -- an occasion to provide even greater strength and promise for families and friends. Yet for hundreds of thousands of Americans, the risks and fears attendant on the birth of a child to an adolescent parent presage problems which will follow the family and the community for years.
There are high health, social and economic risks associated with the entry into parenthood of individuals who are barely beyond childhood themselves. Eight out of ten women who first become mothers at age 17 or younger never complete high school, thereby facing greater risk of unemployment and dependence on welfare. Teenage marriages are two to three times more likely to break up than the marriages of those who wed in their twenties. Pregnancy during adolescence poses serious health risks to both the mother and the child. Half of pregnant teenagers under the age of 17 receive no prenatal health care until the second trimester. Compared to women in the 20-25 year age group, adolescent women are much more likely to die from toxemia of pregnancy and are more likely to have complications during labor and delivery. The infants themselves are at much higher risk, and a baby born to a teenage mother is more than twice as likely to die during the first year of life than a baby born to a woman in her twenties. In addition, a teenager who becomes pregnant once is likely to experience rapid repeat pregnancies, with increased risks to her and to her children.
Considerable attention has been focused on the smoking habits not only of teenage girls but of all women in the population and special efforts have been made to link smoking during pregnancy to higher risks to the health of both mother and child. The adolescent population is large, having swelled over the last 25 years, and now exceeds 40 million young people. The tobacco industry has been increasingly under attack for supposedly making smoking more attractive to young people, or at least for not actively discouraging teenagers from beginning to smoke. These criticisms persist despite industry statements such as that of BATUS Chairman McCarty that "This company does not want children to smoke. We maintain a strict policy against promoting cigarettes to persons under 21 years of age." Government statistics indicate that there are approximately 3.3 million young people who smoke "regularly" and a dramatic increase in recent years among older teenage girls who smoke.
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Teenage Pregnancy
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Whether or not the issue of smoking during pregnancy is addressed, recent government cutbacks at the national level in the availability of some health services for low-income pregnant women and young mothers, fewer federally funded job training programs for teenagers and reductions in social services and child care provide private industry an opportunity to publicly express their concern for the well-being of American citizens and in particular adolescents and infants.
Possible Industry Efforts
Activities which could be undertaken include:
1. Designing a program for providing information to young people and their families, informing teenagers about the decisions they are facing and the consequences which may attend those decisions. Such a program relating to teenage pregnancy could include the use of the various media or seminars with youth leaders.
2. Consistent with a theme of "Responsible Living and Decision Making," the industry could work with local Universities to develop curricula for "Parenting Training."
3. Assisting in vocational training and education for young mothers and fathers.
4. Provide resources to supplement existing child care facilities.
503908139
HEALTH SCIENCE EDUCATION
Summary
Health science, as an extremely diverse discipline, is regarded pubicly (sic) as intimidating, wonderful, revered yet doubted. As a process it is poorly understood. Its greatest achievements are taken for granted. Its greatest failures are widely derided.
Americans are not prepared to deal with it all. Their poor comprehension -- what is good and what is bad -- has already led to a dangerous misunderstanding of what medical science can do... and what it knows.
The American education system is not preparing the number, variety or quality of scientists which will be required in coming years. Clearly, Americans generally are not being provided with a sufficient scientific orientation to deal with what they must absorb in the 1980's and 90's
This program would deal with that issue.
The program would help Americans understand what constitutes good health science . . . and what involves bad science. It would promote the good . . . and would encourage young people to enter the various scientific disciplines. It would promote innovative science education techniques and concepts ... it would help people wishing to enter science education. Finally, it would help equip journalists to deal with the rapid evolution of scientific America.
The Tobacco Industry's support of the program would be founded on the following thoughts:
1. The industry -- perhaps more than any other group -- has suffered from a poor understanding of what constitutes good science. That poor understanding -- which involves the public's view of our product's safe use -- has evolved into a cultural belief.
2. Future generations of Americans need not look at science in the same unskeptical way. They must be trained to question, for it is in the scientific tradition that people be curious and doubtful.
3. There is a demonstrable need for more science students; with cutbacks in public funding, science education programs are in need of private sources of funding.
Health Science Education
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4. For American technology to be adequately translated into consumer goods, a general public education program must be undertaken to put the public at ease about science generally.
5. Finally, the industry needs to be viewed as respectful of science; interested in scientific progress; and supportive of a non-self serving need.
Conceivably there would be three major programs within this effort:
I. Fellowships for journalists specializing in medical science.
This fund would be administered by a panel of journalists, selected by the National Association of Science Writers or a similar recognized professional society, and various scientists. Fellowship grants would be awarded to full-time, accredited journalists with at least five years professional experience.
Study would have to be full-time in an accredited graduate program.
II. Fund for promoting science education in the primary and secondary schools of America.
This grants program would be advised by a panel of prominent scientists and educators, representing key professional organizations. They would award grants to the most innovative science education program submitted by primary and secondary schools.
Each person receiving a grant would be publicized heavily. Conceivably, public officials would be permitted to announce the grants to the constituents of an area benefitting from them.
III. Scholarships for students engaged full-time in science education programs.
In the continuing absence of federally-guaranteed student loans, this program would provide a private source of incentive for students wishing to be science teachers. Selection of recipients could be handled by a committee of the National Science Teachers Association (see below).
Throughout this effort, a relationship would need to exist with the National Science Teachers Association which maintains a membership of 42,000 professionals nationally and which has offices here in Washington.
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Health Science Education
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The objectives of the above organizations and the purposes of these projects are quite similar. Cooperative arrangements would serve the industry by lending credibility to the program; the NASW and NSTA would benefit through the private funding and recognition that would occur.
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TAKING STOCK
Each tobacco company has been involved in its own community programs for some time, but there is no complete record, or inventory of the firms' activities. The information on currently funded programs is fragmented and not easily available so that communication about the innovative activities of tobacco companies is difficult.
An effort to design a system for the collection/retrieval/dissemination of this information should be undertaken so that materials on currently funded programs and future programs under consideration are readily available to The Institute, the media and the public. A detailed description of the industry's efforts would have significant informational value. The Tobacco Institute would have at its disposal a complete inventory of the social involvement efforts of the tobacco industry. This would be useful for giving testimony and in discussions with Members of Congress, executives in federal agencies and state and local officials. Then, in meeting, for example, with the Chairman of a particular Congressional Committee, The Institute could discuss public service programs sponsored by specific companies, or by TI, in the Congressman's own district. We could also describe industry efforts in other locations, but which fall under his substantive jurisdiction or which are in areas of his personal concern. In addition, the list could be used by members of The Tobacco Institute to ensure coordination of efforts in establishing new programs.
The inventory could also form the basis for a nationwide public information campaign depicting the social involvement of tobacco companies in U.S. communities. This campaign could focus on the long history of tobacco companies' social involvement and could emphasize that they have been engaging in voluntarism long before President Reagan encouraged it.
The results of this inventory process will provide The Tobacco Institute and its members with a more complete frame of reference and an opportunity to influence the future growth and direction of such activities on a company-by-company and industry-wide basis.
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