Want to Wreck a Good Dinner? Invite the Marlboro Man
Want to Wreck a Good Dinner?
Invite the Marlboro Man
New York Times
May 28, 1998
Page A22
Why would a group dedicated to human rights help the Marlboro Man clean up his image?
Why would an international human rights organization give Philip Morris cover in its campaign to addict Third World youth?
Bizarre as it sounds, that is what's happening at the International League for Human Rights annual awards dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria on June 6th.
The League has invited the CEO and Chairman of Philip Morris, Geoffrey Bible, to serve as co-chair of its awards dinner. At the same time, Philip Morris has given the League $50,000.
At a time when members of Congress from both parties are running away from tobacco money, and tobacco is on the ropes throughout the country, why is the League helping to sanitize the reputation of an international business predator like Philip Morris?
Philip Morris and other industry leaders knowingly concealed the dangers of tobacco use for decades robbing millions of their most basic human right, the right to live. What Philip Morris wants from the League is clear -- a smokescreen while they work to increase tobacco sales overseas by addicting a new generation of Third World youth. To us, this violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which protects children from harm.
Brands like Marlboro are out to hook foreign youth with tactics they have been forced to abandon in this country. Philip Morris is now the biggest single advertiser in China. In just the first year that American brands were available in South Korea, smoking increased among young women five-fold and among young males from 18% to 30%. Seventy percent of this company's sales are overseas. Since 1980 its foreign operations have expanded by 80%, with 1997 profits overseas totaling $4.6 billion.
Is this a record a reputable human rights group should honor by making the Marlboro Man co-chair of its dinner?
The shackles of tobacco addiction bind as surely as those that chained champions of freedom like Nelson Mandela, Vaclev Havel and Kim Dae Jung. We call on the International League for Human Rights to disinvite the Marlboro Man and return his tainted tobacco cash. If the League doesn't, please don't lend the legitimacy of YOUR presence at this event.
To help support the work of the religious community opposing tobacco, please contact The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 550, New York, NY 10115, Fax (212) 870-2023; or The Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment (a faith based group promoting ethical business practice), 52 Old Swartswood Station Road, Newton, New Jersey 07860, (Fax) 973 579-9919.
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