Internal Philip Morris complaint about Hispanic marketing

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

Hispanic issue

This internal Philip Morris email reveals that one of PM's own employees was offended by the company's targeting of Hispanics, and particularly Hispanic children. The key part of the email thread (at the bottom of the page, and stamped with Bates No. 2041822524) was written by Roy K. Anise of PM's Premium Brands marketing department. (NOTE: The acronym "OOH" refers to "Out of Home" advertising, like billboards and transit ads, as opposed to newspaper and magazine ads that are typically seen in the home). Anise wrote,

I recently received a letter from someone (didn't sign it) claiming to be a PM employee, and they basically requested that we stop our plans to increase our OOH presence in some hispanic markets as it impacted children in these communities. If we don't stop, they will send a letter to [PM CEO] Mike Miles requesting same.

The response, from Diane Cimine (Manager of PM's Media Department), reflects PM's chronic strategy of shifting the debate away from the health issue, and indicates she missed the point of the employee's demand entirely:

Yes, this is very strange and has more to do with placement than with targeting...how odd--from an employee.

Company/Source Collection: Philip Morris
Document Date: 29 May 1994
Length: 1 page
Bates No. 2041822524
URL: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ztc86e00

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