Word: tobacco
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...tobacco industry too is adjusting its attitudes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cigarette smoke kills about418,000 people a year, making it the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. For years, however, the cigarette companies maintained a hard line on the medical front, insisting that the evidence linking their product to cancer and other health problems was inconclusive. Today Thomas Lauria, assistant to the president of the Tobacco Institute, opens his defense of smoking this way: "I think that since the '60s, studies have shown that cigarette smoking has been linked as an important...
Instead of arguing on health grounds, the tobacco industry now tends to recast the debate as a freedom-of-choice issue. "There are a certain amount of adult consumers who want to enjoy tobacco products," says Lauria. "And like those who drink alcohol or who enjoy high-risk sports activities, it is really up to the individual adult to determine what's appropriate for their own conduct...
...young people -- like the infamous Joe Camel campaign -- cigarette companies claim their marketing efforts today are aimed at keeping the customers they have rather than winning new ones. "It's like preaching to the choir," says Sheri Bridges, assistant professor of management at Wake Forest University's M.B.A. school. "Tobacco companies know who their customers are and where they live. They are focusing on those people who already smoke...
Besides courting its friends, the tobacco industry is also coming down hard on its foes. Philip Morris has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against ABC for its Day One reports charging that the tobacco industry "artificially adds nicotine to cigarettes to keep people smoking and boost profits." Says Herbert M. Wachtell, the attorney representing Philip Morris in the suit: "The basic allegation of the programs -- that the company spikes its tobacco with additional nicotine during the manufacturing process -- is just fundamentally and flatly untrue." The network says it stands by its reporting. (A Day One source says Philip Morris refused...
...tobacco industry is becoming more aggressive on the political front as well. In California, for example, where more than half the nation's estimated 600 local antismoking ordinances have been enacted, the tobacco industry is trying a pre-emptive strike. According to antismoking activists in the state, cigarette companies are behind a "citizens' group" supporting an initiative that would institute statewide restrictions against smoking. The catch is that the measure is milder than the many local ordinances it would override...