Daily Doc: PM, Mar 30, 1993: Control of 'Grasstops' Government
Daily Doc: Control of "Grasstops" Government
Title: Grasstops Government Relations
PM, Mar 30, 1993
Bates #: 2024023252/3265
December 5, 2000
This 1993 document, Grasstops Government Relations, is a basic but very thorough description of the strategies Philip Morris (PM) uses to achieve such powerful influence over legislation in the U.S.
PM has analyzed virtually every part of a legislator's world, and misses no opportunity to exert influence, even to the point of currying favor with a legislators' spouses:
"We also make sure that we know the legislator's -- and his or her spouses -- favorite philanthropies and try to support them."PM gives legislators trips to "promotional and cultural events" in nice places. One passage in this document cites a trip for a group of American legislators to Brussels, Belgium:
"We make sure legislators are aware of, and invited to, promotional and cultural events funded by Philip Morris. {CITE ALEC 1992 TRIP TO BRUSSELS AS AN EXAMPLE}"The document also mentions several times how PM dodges media focus by employing third parties to "carry its baggage," as in these two examples:
"[W]e try to keep Philip Morris out of the media on issues like taxation, smoking bans and marketing restrictions. Instead, we try to provide the media with statements in support of our positions from third party sources, which carry more credibility than our company and have no apparent vested interest..."and
"...we create coalitions of third party sources to help carry our baggage on issues. For example, on excise taxes, we work with state and local CARTS, the acronym for Committee Against Regressive Taxation...restaurant owners on smoking bans...retailers on the minimum age issue...and influential groups like the Association of National Advertisers on marketing restrictions."PM's strategy of eliminating discussion of health and safety issues by altering the focus of the issues at hand is also outlined very frankly:
"...Finally, we try to change the focus on the issues. Cigarette tax become[s] an issue of fairness and effective tax policy. Cigarette marketing is an issue of freedom of commercial speech. Environmental tobacco smoke becomes an issue of accommodation. Cigarette-related fires become an issue of prudent fire safety programs. And so on."PM has the money, manpower, organization and determination to carry this off at the upper levels ("grasstops") of government, and they do, and certainly not just in the U.S. But the long-term failure of American legislatures to enact meaningful tobacco control in the face of recognition of the current epidemic of tobacco-induced disease is testimony to the astonishing effectiveness of this one company in controlling the machinations of governments.
CITATION
Title: Grasstops Government Relations
Type of Document: Speech, presentation
Author: Tina Walls, Philip Morris
Recipient: N/A
Date: 19930330
Site: Philip Morris Tobacco Company document site http://www.pmdocs.com/
Page Count 14
Bates No. 2024023252/3265
URL: http://www.pmdocs.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=2024023252/3265
Litigation Usage: None yet (but keep your fingers crossed)
Found Using Search Criteria: "grasstops"
QUOTES
I want to start by stating without qualification that Philip Morris U.S.A. cannot grow without a strong, well-organized and well-thought-out legislative program. We need that legislative program to prevent excise tax increases, marketing restrictions and smoking bans from making our products unaffordable, unpromotable and unacceptable.
I will give you an overview of our legislative program from the grass tops, which is political jargon for decision makers at every level: state, regional and local government...
...Our job in government affairs is to build credible relationships with the people who decide which legislative proposals become law and which don't. We have to maintain access to them, to understand their problems and to help them find solutions that will benefit them and not penalize our consumers...
In pursuit of this goal, we work to prevent legislation that obstructs the channel from us to our consumers...and we promote legislation that advances the interests of our company....
....[L]et's move on to how we work at the grasstops. Let's look at the tools we use to sell our point of view to the people who make the laws that affect our products...
II. Our Grasstops Strategy and How We Implement It [SLIDE OF SIMPLIFIED MODEL OF A LEGISLATOR'S WORLD].
...We call this the Influence Wheel because it illustrates the factors that influence a legislator's political actions and decisions...
[POINTING TO IDEOLOGY AND BELIEFS] For example, the legislator probably has strong ideas on certain issues, like taxes or over-regulation of business.
[POINTING TO MEDIA] Like most politicians, his opinions on an issue are probably influenced by the media.
[POINTING TO SPECIAL CONSTITUENTS] Every politician wants to form alliances with individuals or groups that can strengthen his hold on office and advance his agenda.
[POINTING TO DIRECT CONTACT] A legislator is never too busy to talk about things like political contributions, fundraising for a coming election campaign and programs to benefit his district.
[POINTING TO AVOCATIONAL ACTIVITIES AND PET CAUSES AND CHARITIES] Politicians like to be associated with good works and seen at sports and cultural events.
[POINTING TO VOTERS] These are the people who decide whether or not a legislator stays in office, so he certainly pays attention to what they have to say.
Every one of these influences on a politicians decision offers PM USA's Corporate Affairs Department an opportunity to convey a message on behalf of an issue.
Let's take a closer look at how we apply our resources to the elements of that influence wheel....
When [for example] an excise tax proposal emerges in a particular state, we've already done our homework. We know who the key legislators are and their positions on the issue...{SLIDE: AVOCATIONAL ACTIVITY} We make sure legislators are aware of, and invited to, promotional and cultural events funded by Philip Morris. {CITE ALEC 1992 TRIP TO BRUSSELS AS AN EXAMPLE}
{SLIDE: PET CAUSES AND CHARITIES} We also make sure that we know the legislator's -- and his or her spouses -- favorite philanthropies and try to support them.
{SLIDE: DIRECT CONTACT} I said before that there are many opportunities to meet a state legislator face to face. Here are some of them...
{SLIDE: SPECIAL CONSTITUENTS] Tobacco isn't the only industry threatened by excise taxes...so we strengthen our position by forming alliances on issues with third parties...
{SLIDE: VOTERS} Influencing the legislator means keeping voters informed of issues like taxes by sending communications like these to legislators' home districts. {MENTION CONSTANTLY GROWING CONSUMER DATA BASES THROUGH CONSUMER AFFAIRS, MARKETING...}
{SLIDE: MEDIA} Legislators are sensitive to media. Therefore, we have to get our point of view into print as often as possible. We try to have a third party, like an authority on taxes, write articles in our behalf...
{SLIDE: POLITICAL ACTIONS} Depending on the situation, we will use these spokes of the influence wheel selectively or all at once....
...Now that I've told you what we do and how we do it, let me give you a basic idea of the basic strategies that make the influence wheel go around...
{SLIDE: BASIC POLITICAL STRATEGY} First, the nature of our issues demands that our focus be on all 50 states....Our RD's retail lobbyists, pollsters, public relations firms and other professionals who know the local issues and have contacts among the operative people in government and the media to help us...
Second, we try to keep Philip Morris out of the media on issues like taxation, smoking bans and marketing restrictions. Instead, we try to provide the media with statements in support of our positions from third party sources, which carry more credibility than our company and have no apparent vested interest...
Third, we create coalitions of third party sources to help carry our baggage on issues. For example, on excise taxes, we work with state and local CARTS, the acronym for Committee Against Regressive Taxation...restaurant owners on smoking bans...retailers on the minimum age issue...and influential groups like the Association of National Advertisers on marketing restrictions.
Finally, we try to change the focus on the issues. Cigarette tax become[s] an issue of fairness and effective tax policy. Cigarette marketing is an issue of freedom of commercial speech. Environmental tobacco smoke becomes an issue of accommodation. Cigarette-related fires become an issue of prudent fire safety programs. And so on.
{PAUSE}
...The last issue I want to discuss is restrictions on the use of products by our consumers. The more restrictions imposed on public and workplace smoking, the fewer opportunities our consumers have to use our products--and buy new ones. This is indeed a problem.
I mentioned earlier that the Environmental Protection Agency recently declared ETS a class a carcinogen, meaning that it ranks with WHAT AND WHAT as a cause of cancer. That this decree has been widely denounced as "junk" science based on flawed data has not had much effect. The word is out, and anti-tobacco people in the states are using the EPA declaration to call for even more public smoking bans...
Part of our response to the ETS issue is to shift it from a health matter to a social one by acknowledging that some people find tobacco smoke annoying. We recommend -- again through third parties like restaurant owners and hospitality organizations--accommodation of smokers and non-smokers as an alternative to total smoking bans.
Other counter tactics include supporting dissemination of studies showing how badly smoking bans have hurt business in other localities...and we propose counter-legislation proposing separate sections for smokers and non-smokers....
Our goal is to replace no-smoking signs with our accommodation logo....
.....Agreement by a legislator to lower a proposed tax increase by just a few cents can mean millions of dollars in sales in a particular state...
To accomplish our objectives -- to persuade legislators to listen to us and act favorably on our position -- we have to practice what became known in the 1992 election as retail politics. We have to [treat] the legislator as we would a customer and sell our point of view to help him make a decision that solves his problems without penalizing our consumers-- or us.
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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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