Tobacco.org

Big Tobacco's Racial Profiling Challenged in Court  

On June 7, Miami attorney J.B. Harris filed a lawsuit on Tucker's behalf. The suit seeks $1 billion in punitive damages collectively from Philip Morris USA, Lorillard Tobacco, R.J. Reynolds, and Liggett Group. It accuses the companies of using predatory marketing techniques to target African Americans. Central to the case are hundreds of tobacco industry documents that detail how companies designed cigarettes especially for African Americans; tailored marketing campaigns to lower-income, less-educated African Americans; and continued to do so long after the U.S. Surgeon General's 1964 declaration that cigarettes are hazardous to health.

"Superstitious, Unplanned, Impulsive"

Many formerly secret tobacco industry documents are filled with racist assertions. An R.J. Reynolds (RJR) market research report from 1982 discusses how the company could sell more cigarettes to African Americans. The author, Joaquin Pericas of RJR's Marketing Development Department, refers to African Americans as "an increasingly important opportunity segment" who, he claims, have "superstitious, unplanned, impulsive life styles."

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