Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
A study published in July in the American Journal of Public Health looked at internal tobacco company documents to determine if marketing efforts were aimed at servicemembers during the Gulf War.
Researchers found tobacco companies saw the conflict as a commercial opportunity and targeted servicemembers with free cigarettes, direct advertising, phone cards and homecoming parties.
The military, which often viewed the tobacco companies as benefactors, restricted the activity at times but frequently allowed it, according to “Everywhere the Soldier will Be: Wartime Tobacco Promotion in the U.S.”
Tobacco companies began producing and shipping free cigarettes within the first month of the war.
One company sent 10,000 cartons via the Department of Defense and others were on deck with 42,000 before the DOD acknowledged the free cigarettes were against policy and blocked further shipments, according to the study’s two researchers, Elizabith Smith and Ruth Malone . . .
Barred from providing free cigarettes, tobacco companies turned to branded merchandise such as baseball caps and playing cards.
“RJ Reynolds noted that ‘troops in Saudi Arabia definitely know that Camel Joe is behind them’ as they had received ‘over 5,000 packs of Camel playing cards … [and] a variety of premium items including sunglasses, audio cassettes and cup cozies,’” the study said. . . .
Philip Morris executives said they were “keenly interested in capitalizing on the successful military operation” and “continuing the association we started last year with the troops.”
“Over forty locations now have welcome home signs in place featuring Marlboro brand identification,” a military sales manager said in June 1991, according to the study. The company also produced the largest homecoming event for Desert Storm at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and similar events in Germany featured “extensive signage for Marlboro,” the study said.
Jump to full article »
British American Tobacco joined forces with prominent cooperative societies to launch the Partners in Responsibility youth smoking prevention campaign in Kuwait. The campaign, which aims to raise awareness of laws that regulate underage smoking, was launched on the 4th of May 2008 in all outlets of Dasmah and Bnaid Al-Gar, Bayan, Al-Adeliyiyyah, Kaifan and Al-Rawda and Hawally cooperative societies. Bassem Bekdache, Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs for British American Tobacco in the GCC stated that "We hope that the Partners in Responsibility campaign will help increase awareness of the law. We take the matter of youth smoking prevention very seriously and are backing up words with actions. In addition to Kuwait, this campaign has also been rolled out in Bahrain and Qatar with more countries to follow by the end of 2008."
Philip Morris Kuwait Company WLL hosted a Suhoor Party for the local media on Thursday. Hamad Al-Asfour, Manager Corporate Affairs welcomed visitors for a sumptuous Suhoor meal held at Atlantis Restaurant at Marina Hotel. Representatives from Philip Morris Middle East attended the event including Dubai based George Nassif, the director corporate affairs Middle East and Ruwaida Abu Ajram, communication manager.
"We invited you here to spend this Suhoor party with us because we treasures our friendship with all the newspapers here in Kuwait and we hope for more productive years to come. We thank you for coming and I hope you will enjoy our small token of gratitude," said Al-Asfour on the occasion.
The Suhoor party discourages minors from attending since the company was promoting tobacco products not suited for children.
British American Tobacco announced its sponsorship and participation in the first conference to be held in Kuwait on the social responsibilities of companies and corporations organized by the Multaqa Media Group in cooperation with TRACCS Public Relations Network between 4th and 5th of December 2004, supported by the United Nations Development Program. . . .
Projects in Kuwait and MENA Eric Jones pointed out that BAT has executed over the last few years a number of joint projects with a number of entities to confirm and deepen the concept of social responsibility. A prominent project carried out recently by the Company involved a program with the Kuwaiti Teachers' Association that included a huge campaign against juvenile smoking. The campaign was a great success and is expected to resume in the future.
Kuwait is preparing to enforce strict measures to prevent smoking in public places and stop youngsters from taking up the habit. This came after Kuwait's Cabinet reviewed, in its weekly session Sunday, recommendations by its legal committee aimed at banning smoking in public areas.In recognition of the detrimental effect of smoking, "the Council of Ministers reviewed a recommendation by the Ministerial Committee for Legal Affairs in its 7/2/2003 meeting on implementing law 15/1995 on smoking in public places," Deputy Premier and State Minister for Cabinet and Parliament Affairs Mohammed Daifallah Sharar told reporters.
UST Inc. UST.N , the top U.S. maker of moist smokeless tobacco, on Tuesday posted a higher first-quarter profit, boosted by an extra shipping day for its tobacco, and maintained its forecast for the year.
The Greenwich, Connecticut-based company ships tobacco products like Copenhagen only once a week, on Mondays, so an extra shipping day can cause a notable improvement in results.
UST said domestic industry shipments from wholesalers to retailers were weaker in recent weeks as armed forces stationed in the United States, particularly reservists, headed to the Middle East. Members of the military tend to use smokeless tobacco products more than the broad adult population, and the data only track U.S. retail shipments, the company said.
UST said its smokeless tobacco sales to the military jumped 95 percent, or 3.1 million cans, in the first quarter, including 2.2 million cans shipped to Kuwait via emergency airfreight. The president of UST's U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. estimated that about 1 percent to 2 percent of its consumer base has been temporarily relocated abroad due to troop movement.
The Army regulates, as it does so many aspects of soldiers' lives, much of what they take into battle. But into the crevices of rucksacks and the slender folds of pockets, U.S. troops who are in Kuwaiti camps today but in the Iraqi desert tomorrow find tiny spaces for something of their own.
They choose carefully. What do you pack when you are being sent out to kill? Or when you might be going out to die?
Spc. John Zellers, 28, of the 2nd Battalion of the 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, carries both cigarettes and a tin of Copenhagen smokeless tobacco, because he's prohibited from firing up a smoke at night when they reach combat. [This graph only]
British American Tobacco, the world's second-largest cigarette maker, pulled its foreign staff out of Kuwait where U.S. and U.K. forces are preparing for a possible invasion of Iraq as early as next week.
``It's a precautionary measure in case something does happen,'' company spokesman David Betteridge said in an interview. A ``handful'' of foreign staff members were asked to leave the country, he said, without giving details.
British American, the maker of the Pall Mall and Lucky Strike cigarettes, is the latest foreign company to evacuate staff from Kuwait on concern Iraq may retaliate against the Arab emirate with chemical and biological weapons in the event of war.