Tobacco Industry Sponsorship: What are the values?

Tobacco companies sponsor organizations from the arts to human rights and disaster relief.
Does tobacco money represent the values of your organization?

“... we forget about the tobacco industry being responsible for [Peter Jenning's] death, and that is what is being left out of most of the news coverage that have I seen.
And this is part of a large public relations campaign that this tobacco industry has very successfully carried out that includes everything from their so-called youth smoking prevention programs that put the blame on smoking on youth and not the tobacco advertising to their general so-called corporate responsibility campaigns donating money to art museums and other cultural events, trying to present themselves as responsible corporate citizens and again trying to divert attention from their role and their responsibility in over five million deaths around the world from tobacco.”

Background on Tobacco Industry Sponsorship
Adapted from the ASP Toolkit, Alison Rhodes-Devey, NYTCP (Jan 2005)

The Tobacco Industry (TI) has a long history of sponsorship in the United States.

Corporate giving involves funds donated to an entity or organization utilizing the giver’s corporate name, such as Altria. There is no restriction on corporate sponsorship in the MSA (see below.) A large number of TI corporate sponsorships involve the arts, including museums, dance troupes, theatres and educational institutions. Additionally, tobacco companies donate to organizations, programs and events that represent or are targeted to minorities, women, and youth. Although some TI corporate sponsorship involves major national organizations, a large number involve small organizations that serve individual communities.

Tobacco companies have solicited people and organizations that need financial support for their causes including those providing services to African Americans, Hispanic American, gays and lesbian organizations and community organizations addressing such issues as HIV/AIDS, hunger, domestic violence, human rights and disaster relief.

Commercial sponsorship promotes the sponsoring company’s brand name, such as in the previous NASCAR Winston Cup or the Marlboro Team Penske. Commercial sponsorship of athletic, musical, artistic or other cultural event includes the use of the brand name either as part of the event or to advertise or promote sales. The goal of this type of sponsorship is to sell the product, increase exposure to a brand name, associate a brand with an event or lifestyle, normalize tobacco use, and promote the tobacco company as a supporting member of the community.

The Master (or Multistate) Settlement Agreement — MSA
In the mid 1990’s the state Attorneys General sued the tobacco industry to recover state Medicaid funds paid out for illness and disease caused by smoking. The suit revealed that, as part of industry plans to gain and retain customers, the industry misled the public about both the health risks and the addictive nature of tobacco use. The court’s ruling of tobacco industry responsibility resulted in the 1998 Master — or Multistate — Settlement Agreement (MSA) ordering the industry to pay almost $200 Billion to the states by 2025.

Among the provisions of the MSA, tobacco company sponsorship is restricted for participating manufacturers. The MSA allows tobacco company corporate sponsorship of athletic, musical, cultural, artistic or social events as long as the corporate name does not include the brand name of a domestic tobacco product. For example, “Altria” is OK, “Virginia Slims” is not.

The MSA restricts commercial tobacco sponsorship in the following ways:

• Limits tobacco companies to one brand name sponsorship per year
• Prohibits brand name sponsorship of events with a significant youth audience or team sports (football, basketball, baseball, hockey or soccer).
• Prohibits sponsorship of events where the paid participants or contestants are under age 18.
• Bans tobacco brand names from stadiums and arenas.

For links to more information about the MSA, click here.

After the Master Settlement Agreement, sponsorship became increasingly important to tobacco companies. Establishing themselves as companies that were committed to doing business differently, showing that they cared about the public and were altruistic was important to them. Following the MSA, tobacco companies launched major public relations campaigns utilizing television and print media touting their commitment to the community. These public relations campaigns also provided an opportunity for tobacco companies to get their names on television for the first time in 30 years.

The Impact
Both commercial and corporate giving sponsorship sustain the image of tobacco use as socially acceptable and of tobacco companies as legitimate members of the community. In addition, commercial sponsorship has the same effect as other forms of tobacco advertising; it directly promotes a product that addicts and kills its user.

Studies have demonstrated the relationship between tobacco industry sponsorship and youth smoking behavior.

• Tobacco company sponsorship has the same effects on children as traditional tobacco product advertisement and promotion
• Teenagers who can readily name a cigarette brand and who own a tobacco-company promotional item are more than twice as likely to become established smokers than other adolescents.
• Approximately one-third of adolescent experimentation with smoking results directly from tobacco advertising and promotion.
• Tobacco sports sponsorship, in particular, influences youth attitudes and behaviors related to smoking, increases brand awareness, links brands and sports, and associates cigarette brands with the excitement of the sporting event, evoking positive attitudes about smoking and smoking behavior.

 
Actions to Address the Problem
Building awareness about impact of tobacco company sponsorship and its relationship to tobacco use is an important step in working to eliminate tobacco company sponsorship and to adopt written policies prohibiting tobacco company sponsorship in the future. With increasing knowledge of TI marketing tactics and tobacco company attempts to improve their image by associating with community organizations and events, more and more organizations and event planners will reject tobacco company money and avoid opportunities to promote tobacco companies or their products. By refusing tobacco company sponsorship, organizations can influence a social climate in which tobacco use is unacceptable. The public view of tobacco companies should be based on the fact that they sell a product that kills up to half of those who use it as intended, rather from the comparatively small amounts of money companies provide to community organizations.

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