Tobacco Company Acts as Responsible Corporate Citizen
Jump to full article: Korea Times (kr), 2009-07-23
Author: Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter
Intro: This is the first of a four-part series highlighting corporate social responsibility activities of Korea's big four tobacco makers. _ ED.
In the aftermath of the currency crisis in 1998, the Korean Council of Food Support (KCFS) was formed to provide impoverished people with surplus food and groceries.
It took little time for the KCFS to realize that it needed refrigerator trucks to collect and distribute surplus food but the not-for-profit private entity struggled to secure the expensive items.
The KCFS knocked on the doors of many homegrown companies to no avail. The help finally came from an unexpected outfit _ foreign tobacco producer Philip Morris, famous for its flagship product Marlboro.
``Back then, no firms were ready to donate the expensive freezer trucks because the economic slump was so severe, with the sole exception of Philip Morris Korea,'' KCFS Secretary General Lee Yun-hyeong said. . . .
Indeed, such a mantra was shown in April when the company had a press conference to mark its 20th anniversary in Korea.
``Philip Morris Korea supports comprehensive and strict regulation of tobacco. Given the hazardous nature of smoking, it supports the government's strong enforcement of regulation in all steps from production, taxation, to marketing, sales and consumption,'' it said in a press release at the time.
Philip Morris Korea also uses a much bigger warning on smoking than required when it promotes its products in journals.
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