The purpose of this memo is to outline...recommendations for dealing with the ongoing battle over ETS...

...OBJECTIVES:

Protect the franchise

Hold the line against an escalation of smoking bans, whether instituted unilaterally by employers or by government action.

Discredit the EPA report on ETS specifically and the EPA generally.

Establish the strongest possible input into OSHA deliberations.

Blunt the thrust of employer and manufacturer liability suits.

Establish good [indoor air quality] overall, accommodation and responsible smoking as the solutions.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Litigation

Sue the bastards!

Although already rejected more than once, there is simply no other action that will accomplish as much across all fronts as effectively. In it is defined the substance and the symbolism of our principal message: We are right! We shall fight!

It establishes focus and direction; it will inoculate all audiences for follow-up activity and it could, at the very least, delay or cloud precipitous actions against us. With appropriate communications overlays, it could regain some percentage of industry credibility and it could stimulate others, who have heretofore been too timid to fight back against the EPA, so summon up their own courage for their own battles...

MEDIA

There are those who will maintain that the best--perhaps the only--media strategy is to have no more coverage whatsoever. Theoretically they are correct, but...there will continue to be considerable coverage generated at the national level and...growing coverage at the local levels. Against those certainties, the objective must be to respond, to influence and to maintain balance through a combination of company, industry and third-party spokespeople...

The pro-active strategy should....

Demonstrate the scientific weaknesses of the EPA conclusions in consequential terms...

...Point to EPA excesses and mistakes unrelated to tobacco.

Demonstrate EPA "corruption" ...

Stimulate non-tobacco industry, anti-regulation groups and others to provide their own perspectives in order to portray EPA as an agency correctly under siege.

Provide comfort and articulation to smokers.

Provide a counterbalance against an employer stampede for smoking bans.

Indicate the company's and industry's resolve on behalf of smokers and employers who wish to preserve the "rights of all."

...Point to separate sections, ventilation and accommodation as the only rational solutions of a democratic society.

...The key to all media will be a combination of message and messengers -- meticulously prepared, consistent and credible...

Coalition Development and Mobilization/Third Party Activity

Institute for Regulatory Policy

Started specifically to address the panoply of problems in the risk assessment and regulatory process...IRP is an existing mechanism that currently is in the best position to mobilize a wide variety of business groups, corporations, local governments and other parties concerned about or victimized by EPA excesses.

Burson-Marstellar has worked with IRP...since its inception...and has several clients who are among IRP's key supporters... In September, 1992, B-M mounted an intensive grass-roots effort on behalf of IRP [to petition] President Bush asking him to add risk assessment to the moratorium on regulatory activity...

Citizens for a Sensible Environment (Citizens for a Sound Economy)

This group is well-known to Philip Morris, and, like IRP, already has a track record of activity and is well-positioned to undertake a number of coalition-building activities. Burson-Marstellar has provided support to several previous activities, most notably in August 1992, with regard to a CSE-sponsored conference in Columbus, Ohio featuring Vice President Quayle. Working with the office of the VP...CSE and IRP, B-M was involved in both concept and execution of a strategy that made sure that media coverage of the...message regarding over-regulation superseded the political noise surrounding the VP's appearance.

...HVAC/IAQ Business and Groups

We have also previously outlined a potential approach to those businesses and groups whose economic interests would be furthered by the adoption of policies and regulations centered on total IAQ solutions rather than source control...