Tobacco-institutions
• PHILIP MORRIS
From the mid 1980s, Philip Morris was the lead company in devising and operating strategies to defeat the anti-smoking movement, and maintain the tolerance of the public and politicians to the high rate of lung-cancer deaths. From the early 1990s, they also took control of the international tobacco industry's strategies to a very large degree.
• RJ REYNOLDS
RJ Reynolds was the US domestic industry leader until Philip Morris edged ahead in the mid-1980s. It was an old-fashioned, family business, which believed in its god-given right to lead and profit, and it was surprised to be taken over by junk-bond merchants, and stripped of both its assets and its ability to dominate the cigarette business.
• TOBACCO INSTITUTE
The Tobacco Institute was the PR and lobbying arm of the US tobacco industry, and it spawned tobacco-institutes in many other countries. It was also the prototype of ICOSI [International Center ] and INFOTAB which sought to coordinate the efforts globally.
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General Corruption Techniques
• WHATEVER
Whatever goes here.
• THINKTANKS & POLICY INSTITUTES
A major ploy of the public relations and lobbying industries in the USA — and to a lesser degree in other countries — is to operate through think-tanks, policy-institutes and similar "not for profits" [supposedly bi-partisan] organisations.
• BIG-CHILL POLITICAL TACTICS
The "Big Chill" [a lobbying industry term] tactic has proved to be very effective. It is closely aligned with the Mafia intimidation tactics of "putting the frighteners on ..." some likely defector or snitch.
Reading the memos, letters, plans and project outlines of the American tobacco industry makes fascinating reading, and provides eye-opening insights into how the corrupt sections of corporate America interact with the Washington (and Brussels) establishment, with political parties of all ideologies, and with other special-interest groups. However, for the neophyte researcher, the tobacco industry's use of jargon and abbreviations and some of their unspoken assumptions make it difficult to come to grips with what was actually happening — especially for a non-American.
Until a few years ago think-tanks didn't exist outside America. But now with the Americanisation of the developed world, and the promotion of unfettered free-enterprise ideas, there are dozens — and some of the most deadly have been established in the UK, Eastern Europe and Asia. Corporate corruption of science now exists on a global scale — servicing the new rash of global corporations.
These Tutorials exist to help you fill in your understanding as to the background of this industry. It deals mainly with the period from 1954, when the first major smoking & health scare surfaced ... until 1998, when the tobacco industry was finally forced to admit that its behaviour had been corrupt and criminal, and pay a few hundred billions of compensation (immediately extracted from their addicted customers).
However the individuals involved have never been forced to admit their personal riles as 'Merchants of Death', nor were they ever charged with profiteering from a trade that prematurely kills about 4 million people a year and debilitates many millions more. Yet these victim statistics are not dissimilar to the decade-long killing fields of Cambodia.
Tutorial List
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- Tom Osdene's diaries. Tom Osdene was a British-born science-corrupter from Philip Morris's domestic company in the USA. His top job was Vice President of Science and Technology (the political-science section), but formerly he had been Research Director for Philip Morris USA and also an industry consultant He retired in the late 1990s, which deprived us of his insights: he was an inveterant diary-keeper, and his files were full of carefully-recorded details and discussions of meeting in which he was involved.
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