Corporate Affairs Review

This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

This 1997 Philip Morris Corporate Affairs Plan discusses PM's activities in Asia. Page 5 (Bates No. 2074188965) lists PM's "Regional Opponent Groups," which include health groups in Malaysia, Taipei, Thailand, India and Hong Kong. Included on the list are the World Health Organization and Rural Doctors in Thailand. The document laments a low smoking incidence in Hong Kong and looming further restrictions:

"...And in Hong Kong, where the smoking incidence is 17 percent (among the lowest in the world), the FDA's assertions and PM USA's proposals to address youth smoking are now cited as a basis for further restrictions [on tobacco]..."

The document also describes the real reasons PM sponsors the arts in Asia: to gain access to senior government officials (from Page 19, Bates No. 2074188979):

"The Philip Morris Group of Companies ASEAN Art Awards--an art competition involving sevel ASEAN markets that provides Corporate Affairs and management with direct access to senior government officials in each country and [has] given us strong relationships at the ASEAN Secretariat..."

The document shows that secondhand smoke issues were a priority in Asia, and that PM strove to hide its authorship of materials regarding secondhand smoke so as to get a better reception:

[From Page 38, Bates No. 2074188998]:

"The ETS book, although written and worked on entirely by Philip Morris, was issued in the name of the Asia Tobacco Council. As a result, it has been used extensively by the industry in many countries--which certainly would not have been the case had it gone out only under the Philip Morris byline."

It also shows PM's boasting of control over the media [also from Page 38],

"Earlier in the year, when the Asia Pacific Association for the Control of Tobacco held its annual meeting in Bangkok, we monitored the event... We were also able, discreetly, to manage much of the media reporting of the Conference."

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