Category Archives for "Big Tobacco"

Big Tobacco is the enemy!

This seems to have been forgotten by some in the ‘tobacco control’ movement who want to deal with the likes of Philip Morris and British American Tobacco.

The expression Big Tobacco refers to the world’s five largest tobacco companies: Philip Morris, British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Japan Tobacco, and China Tobacco.

Should they be indicted for crimes against humanity? Use of their products kills seven million people per year (WHO figure).

Incredibly, Big Tobacco seek to present themselves as part of the solution to the smoking problem. And how do they manage this extraordinary contortion? But claiming they’re developing safer alternatives to cigarettes! Examples of these are ‘heat-not-burn’ tobacco products that go by the names of iQOS, glo, and Ploom. In the same vein we have Philip Morris’s specious promise that they’re ‘trying to give up cigarettes‘. Give them a big hand!

I suppose one can’t expect Big Tobacco to do the decent thing (don’t laugh) and put themselves out of business. But, you see, as soon as their alternative products have taken off and are producing as much if not more income than that of their current ordinary cigarettes – they’ll stop making ordinary cigarettes ! So that’s all right then.

While we hold our breath waiting for that moment to arrive we can contemplate another public enemy – as far as tobacco is concerned. And that is governments. For allowing the current deplorable situation to exist whereby ordinary cigarettes continue to be allowed to be sold.

More Big Tobacco Hypocrisy

Laughing all the way to the bank Philip Morris International (PMI) claim their new ‘heat-not-burn’ tobacco product that goes under the name of IQOS isn’t an e-cigarette. They say this because e-cigarettes are prohibited in Thailand. The Managing Director of the Thailand division of PMI, Mr Gerald Margolis (pictured), argues that their new product ‘is […]

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Big Tobacco Bashing

Tobacco company CEOs lying to the US Congress in 1994 that nicotine is not addictive For today’s post, let’s hear it from the Tobacco Action Committee of the American Thoracic Society (ATS). The Committee is charged with organizing and coordinating the [Society’s] tobacco control activities [which] will include…activities with the ultimate goal of minimizing the […]

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How To Be Popular With Nicotine

I quote from British American Tobacco’s International Marketing Principles, 2015: We will not portray smoking as an activity that makes people appear more popular, appealing or successful. But they seem to have no qualms about portraying the use of their new product with the almost unpronounceable name of ‘glo’ as an activity that makes people […]

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More BAT Duplicity

Fumatul ucide is Spanish for smoking kills In my tireless efforts to bring you the low-down on the tricks of the tobacco trade let me tell you about this little gem I came across recently from British American Tobacco (BAT): http://www.bat.com/group/sites/UK__9D9KCY.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO8GSFQT Under the page header the eye is drawn to the large print: ‘Our Guiding […]

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Lies, Damned Lies, and Big Tobacco

How can Nic-‘otine’-andro Durante face himself in the mirror each morning? Let me put it another way. What are 10,000 deaths a year in the UK worth? To work this out we need to remember that one of the warning labels appearing on cigarette packs amusingly states ‘Smoking kills’. More precisely, smoking kills about 100,000 […]

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Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them…well, I have others

The title is a quotation from Groucho Marx. Keeping this in mind, let’s look at the website of Japan Tobacco International (JTI), in particular the section headed ‘Our six core principles’. (The word ‘core’ is redundant.) The hypocrisy from start to finish is breathtaking. The very idea of a tobacco company declaring it has any […]

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Nothing Much Changed in Thousands of Years

German industrial cigarette machine – makes 10,000 cigarettes a minute There are some individuals and organisations that have found a way to deal with awkward questions: ignore them! Recently I cast my critical eye at the website of the venerable cigarette manufacturing company, Japan Tobacco International (JTI). In their ‘About tobacco’ section we find the […]

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