Campaign
for Tobacco Free Kids
New National Ad Campaign Asks Why Philip Morris
is Changing Its Name, But Not Its Deadly Habits Ad: "No matter
how often a snake sheds its skin... It's still a snake"
April 23, 2002
WASHINGTON (April 23, 2002) - Under a photo
of a slithering snake, the headline of an ad running nationally
this week reads "No matter how often a snake sheds its skin...
it's still a snake." The point of the ad is that tobacco
giant Philip Morris is trying to hide from its past by changing
its name to The Altria Group, but it has failed to change its
harmful practices, especially marketing practices that result
in more kids smoking its Marlboro cigarettes than all other brands
combined. (The ad can be viewed at http://tobaccofreekids.org/reports/philipmorris/ad.pdf
-Needs Adobe Reader-ed.)
The ad is sponsored by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free
Kids, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and
American Lung Association. It is running in national newspapers
as Philip Morris' shareholders prepare to vote on the name change
at their annual meeting April 25 in Richmond, VA.
"Why is Philip Morris changing its name?"
the ad asks. "After decades of marketing to kids, deceiving
the public and manipulating its products, Philip Morris now wants
to hide from its past. But it can't hide this: More kids still
smoke 'Altria's' Marlboros than all other brands combined."
The ad's conclusion: "New Name. Same Deadly Habits."
According to the 2000 National Household
Survey on Drug Abuse, which provides the most recent data on cigarette
brand preference among youth, 54.8 percent of youth smokers prefer
Marlboro as their usual brand. Marlboro was by far the preferred
brand among youth, with the second most preferred brand, Lorillard's
Newport, lagging far behind at 23.4 percent.
A recent poll by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free
Kids (conducted March 6-10, 2002) found that youth are far more
likely to recall advertising for Marlboro than for other cigarette
brands and that teens are three times as likely as adults to recall
Marlboro advertising.
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