Industry Actions1940-1969

In response to the article Carcinoma of the Lungs by Drs. Oschner and Debakey, in 1939 Edward Harlow, a chemist at the American Tobacco Company, circulated an internal memorandum.

Referring to research funded or conducted by American Tobacco, Harlow predicted that impartial research would vindicate cigarettes but that “this would never be suspected by reading the extensive medical literature on tobacco.” He also noted that the “medical profession is the group which it is most desired to reach and convince” and that the “tobacco industry is very much in need of some friendly research in this field.”

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Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War

 WORLD WAR II 

The cigarette habit exploded during World War II, when a world market opened up to the tobacco industry. Britain spent more money on tobacco than war weaponry. Cigarettes were included in GI's C-Rations. Tobacco companies send millions of free cigarettes to GI's, internationalizing the most popular brands. While the home front had to make do with off-brands like Rameses or Pacayunes.

1941

RJ Reynolds’ Camel smoke-ring billboard becomes a Times Square landmark for the next 25 years.

1942 Smoking and Movies

CasablancaNow Voyager

In 1942 RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company advertised in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Reynolds even presented a

exhibit of Camel cigarettes at an AMA Convention.

Philip Morris, in 1943 places an ad in the National Medical Journal which reads: "'Don't smoke' is advice hard for patients to swallow. May we suggest instead 'Smoking Philip Morris?' Tests showed three out of every four cases of smokers' cough cleared on changing to Philip Morris. Why not observe the results for yourself?"

1945The three largest tobacco companies are convicted of anti-trust violations

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Again in 1945 the three largest tobacco companies American Tobacco Company, Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, and R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, together with certain of their officials and a subsidiary of one of the companies, were convicted by a jury, in the district court, on counts of conspiracy in restraint of trade, attempt to monopolize, conspiracy to monopolize, and monopolizing in the tobacco industry, in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. They were each fined an aggregate of $15,000 on three of the counts, or a total of $255,000. On the count of attempting to monopolize, no fines were assessed, for the reason that this offense was held to be merged in the offense of monopolizing. The allegations of fact are the same for each count on which the parties were convicted.

1946 More Dr Smoke Camels

The phrase will run in ads through 1952.

• "According to a recent nationwide survey: MORE DOCTORS SMOKE CAMELS THAN ANY OTHER CIGARETTE! Family physicians, surgeons, diagnosticians, nose and throat specialists, doctors in every branch of medicine... a total of 113,597 doctors...were asked the question: "What cigarette do you smoke?" And more of them named Camel as their smoke than any other cigarette!

• Three independent research groups found this to be a fact. You see, doctors too smoke for pleasure. That full Camel flavor is just as appealing to a doctor's taste as to yours...that marvelous Camel mildness means just as much to his throat as to yours. Next time, get Camels. Compare them in your "T-Zone" 30-day test

1946 Lorillard Document states “Just enough evidence”

A letter from a Lorillard chemist to its manufacturing committee states: "Certain scientists and medical authorities have claimed for many years that the use of tobacco contributes to cancer development in susceptible people. Just enough evidence has been presented to justify the possibility of such a presumption."

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''Camel News Caravan,'' a NBC nightly news program, airs in 1949, proudly bearing the name of its tobacco-company sponsor. The broadcast ended in 1956.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfczfHjfn9k

1950

Lucky strike sponsored a pop-music series "Your Hit Parade. " Your Hit Parade ran for 7 years on television.

1951

TV series "I Love Lucy" is sponsored by Philip Morris. The animated titles and feature stick figures of Lucy and Desi climbing a giant pack of Philip Morris cigarettes opened the show each week. I love Lucy was the top-rated show for four of its first six full seasons.

1950 Tar Derby• In 1950 the American cigarette consumption is 10 cigarettes per

capita, which equals over a pack a day for smokers. More and more evidence was surfacing that smoking was linked to lung cancer.

The tobacco industry denied such health hazards as depicted in the Reader Digest; they promoted new products which were "safer", such as those with lower tar and filtered cigarettes.

This public's health concerns drives companies to compete in rival ad campaigns touting their filters it named The "Tar Wars" or "Tar Derby".

When the decade begins, 2% of cigarettes are filter tip; by 1960, 50% of cigarettes are filter tips. 15 filter brands account for 95% of U.S. sales.

Tar Wars or Tar Derby

The tar derby is a term used to describe the period in the 1950s and early 1960s marked by a rapid influx in both cigarette advertising focused on tar content measurements to differentiate cigarettes and brand introduction or repositioning focusing on filter technology. The period ended in 1959 after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman and several cigarette company presidents agreed to discontinue usage of tar or nicotine levels in advertisements.

The industry created a PR smokescreen. Cigarette makers hired Hill & Knowlton and formed the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, initially housed in the public-relations agency's office.

Parliaments introduced in 1931 was the first Major American cigarette

with a filter.However it was not popular until the 1950’s

• Benson & Hedges introduces Parliament, which came in a hard

box. It featured a mouthpiece, and the first commercial filter tip: a wad

of cotton, soaked in caustic soda. Both were meant mostly to keep bits

of tobacco out of the smoker's mouth

Viceroy the other filter brand, entering the market in 1936, used a cork tipped filter developed by Brown and

Williamson. In 1952 Viceroy was the first brand to add a cellulose

acetate filter created by Brown and Williamson, which established a new industry standard.

1952 Lorillard introduces Kent cigarettes, with the "Micronite" filter. A press conference was held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel; Lorillard boasted that the "Micronite"

filter offered "the greatest health protection in cigarette history." Its secret - asbestos.

1952 L&MLiggett & Myers widely publicizes the results

of tests run in 1952 by Arthur D. Little, Inc.

“Smoking Chesterfields would have no adverse effects on the throat, sinuses or affected organs."

The ads run, among other places on the nationally popular Arthur Godfiey radio and television show.

CONCLUSIONS Studies of clinical data tend to confirm the relationship between heavy and prolonged tobacco smoking and incidence of lung cancer.

In February 1953, an RJ Reynolds scientist by the name of Claude Teague Jr. wrote a report named The survey of caner research with emphasis upon possible carcinogens from tobacco. The Conclusion confirmed the relationship between heavy and prolonged tobacco smoking and incidence of lung cancer.

1953 AdsBenson & Hedges' Parliament sales are skyrocketing due to its

filter.L&M "Just what the doctor ordered, and the Miracle tip.

1953 "Viceroy gives double-barreled health protection."

In wake of the growing health concerns the

Tobacco Industry decided to have a

“meeting of the heads of all those cigarette

companies.”Edward Darr

December 10, 1953

November 26, 1953Press Release

Paul M. Hahn, President of American Tobacco

Company

“. . . no one has yet proved that lung cancer in any human being is directly traceable to tobacco or to its products in any form.”

Plaza Hotel meetingsIn December 14, 1953, the Tobacco Industry set up a series of meetings at the Plaza Hotel in New York. The executives discussed (i) the negative publicity from the recent articles in the media, (ii) responding to the problem by jointly engaging a public relations counsel, and (iii) removing health themes from advertising.

Well known ad agency Hill & Knowlton “feel they should sponsor a public health campaign”

• “We accept an interest in people's health as a basic responsibility, paramount to every other consideration in our business.

• We believe the products we make are not injurious to health.

• We always have and always will cooperate closely with those whose task it is to safeguard the public health.”

The Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC) released in a nationwide 2-page spread, A FRANK STATEMENT TO CIGARETTE SMOKERS on January 4, 1954.

The ads were placed in 448 newspapers across the nation, reaching a circulation of 43,245,000 in 258 cities

TIRC's first scientific director was noted cancer Dr. Clarence Cook Little, former head of the National Cancer Institute (soon to become the American Cancer Society). Little's life work lay in the genetic origins of cancer; he tended to disregard environmental factors.

In April of the TIRC release A SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE CIGARETTE CONTROVERSY, a booklet quoting 36 scientists questioning smoking's link to health problems.

TIRC White Paper, April 1954

Sometime in 1954 from the creator of “True” a men’s magazine published Smoke without Fear

Don Cooley, in the process of writing an article for True Magazine, is contacted by Hill and Knowlton. "Considerable information and assistance was provided Donald G. Cooley in the preparation for his story in True Magazine. This entailed conferences with the author to work on factual revisions. . . Further research and assembling of material and personal conferences have been extended Mr. Cooley to provide him requested aid in his writing of a 48-page, low-priced book for newsstand sales and angled at the idea "You don't have to give up smoking." Fawcett Publications is issuing the book entitled 'Smoke Without Fear' , in late August and early September. " Report of Activities through July 31, 1954

July 1954 Cosmopolitan wrote and article to Smoke or Not to Smoke

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Philip Morris buys Benson & Hedges in 1954 Joseph Cullman, B&H president becomes resident of Philip Morris

Philip Morris hired adman Leo Burnett in late 1954 to relaunch Marlboro in late 1954. Burnett noted filter-cigarette sales had tripled "in a year marked by widespread publicity on the possible harmful effects of cigarette smoking." He wrote: "You say to yourself: 'Hmmm, people are afraid smoking cigarettes may harm them. Then all we have to do is tell them that our filter makes cigarette smoking safe and we can lean back and watch the money roll in.

Philip Morris introduces Marlboro cigarettes with cork tipped filter

Previous to 1955, the Marlboro slogan was Mild as May, and marketed as a fancy smoke and directed at women.

To counter filter cigarettes' "slightly effeminate" image, Marlboro ads showed cowboys and "regular guys."New Marlboro would be a filter smoke for the masses. 

In 1954, RJ Reynolds introduces their filtered Winston brand.

1954 Filters by L&M

Life Magazine runs ads for L&M featuring Barbara

Stanwyckz. The brand's new "miracle product," the "alpha cellulose" filter is "just what

the doctor ordered." These ads will figure prominently in the Cipollone trial 30

years later.

Timothy V. Hartnett, TIRC Chairman1955, Edward R. Murrow show

"See It Now" a TV show on CBS airs the first TV report linking cigarette smoking with lung cancer and other diseases. (For the first time on TV, Edward R. Murrow is not seen smoking. He had not quit; he felt it was "too late" to stop. Murrow died of lung cancer in 1965.)

Timothy V. Hartnett the director of the TIRC interjects the view of Tobacco Institute

Question: “Suppose the tremendous amount of research going on…were to reveal that there is a cancer-causing agent in cigarettes, what then?”

Dr. C.C. Little: “…it would be made public immediately…and then efforts would be taken to attempt to remove that substance or substances.”

-Edward R. Murrow’s Second TV show on “Cigarettes and Lung Cancer” 06/07/55

Dr. Clarence Cook Little,Scientific Director for the

TIRC appeared on the Edward R. Murrow’s Second TV show on

“Cigarettes and Lung Cancer

“Causation” of Lung Cancer“With the exception of (H.S.N. Greene) the individuals whom we met believed that smoking causes lung cancer if by “causation” we mean any chain of events which leads finally to lung cancer and with involves smoking as an indispensable link.”

The Birth of the Tobacco Institute - 1958

After the Blatinik hearings the TIRC scientific department was slightly tainted by their own Hill & Knowlton Public Relation team and both corporations’ personnel was not enough; a new Tobacco Institute was born.

1958 Tobacco Institute comprised of all the major tobacco companies….

was, “created on behalf of the companies, which assembled an impressive record of derailing attempts to bring tobacco under any regulatory mandates whatsoever“ –Alan Brandt

After a tiring day, Donald Slayton and Virgil Grissomtake time out for a smoke.

1962

Ex #365

A RJ Reynolds’ scientist named Alan Rodgman wrote in an internal document titled: The smoking and health problem a critical and objective appraisal the following.

Philip Morris hires Abe Fortas, Lyndon Johnson's personal attorney and powerful lobbyist In 1963. The law firm was ”chosen by the six major tobacco companies (R.J. Reynolds, American Tobacco, Brown and Williamson, Liggett and Myers, P. Lorillard and Philip Morris) to form a committee of lawyers to solidify industry togetherness. The committee met almost daily, planning for every possible contingency, and carefully forming the industry argument for the FTC hearings. When the issue of labeling came before Congress, it was this group who wrote the testimony, conducted the search for friendly witnesses, and even supplied questions that its Congressional allies could ask opposing witnesses.

The effort of Abe fortas as well as ex senator Earle C. Clements (and soon to president of the Tobacco Institute 1967-1970 ) led to the preemption of the FTC by Congress.

The Cigarette Labeling act not only gave the industry weak, generalized labels, but preempted litigation by letting the industry argue that the labels had given smokers sufficient warning, and that they undertook smoking at their own knowledgeable risk. As Fortas said at a DOJ meeting in June, 1964, "The companies want legislation. . . . . A requirement that packages be labeled would be helpful in civil litigation." Fortas may also have played a large role in keeping then-President Johnson out of the fray.

Fortas later became Johnson's choice for the Supreme Court (1965-1969).

Addison Yeaman a lawyer for Brown & Williamson expresses his view of nicotine in this 1963 document.

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U.S. Surgeon General, Luther Terry, M.D.

January 11, 1964The Surgeon General releases report linking

cigarettes to lung cancer

After the release of the Smoking and Health the tobacco industry adopts voluntary advertising guidelinesThe same year the TIRC changes its name to the Council for Tobacco Research-USA, Inc. also know as ("CTR") in order to create an identity separate from the tobacco industry.Despite this desire, industry control of over CTR research increases with a menu of daily specials…

Special projectsSpecial accountsSpecial Assignments

CTR as a “front”Bill Shinn of Shook Hardy and Bacon referring to the CTR as a shield

George Weissman to Joseph F Cullman III

Public Relations Program

“. . . We must in the near future provide some answers which will give smokers a psychological crutch and a self-rationale to continue smoking.

January 29, 1964

Howard CullmanTobacco Merchants Association,

TI Executive Committee,PM Board of Directors

1964, CBS News

On the new report Howard Cullman stated ‘we need more research …if there are bad eliminate through our laboratory, through surgeon general's, through the AMA…we hope we may find them and if they are found they will be removed.”